2 Samuel
10
– 14
This is the story that causes problem with Israel for some
time. The dysfunction of the family can be seen and the damage of David’s sin
is apparent. Verse 11:1 lays out one fundamental issue:
In the springtime
of the year, the season when most kings took their soldiers out to
fight, David stayed in Jerusalem and sent Joab out as general in
charge of David’s men and the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the
Ammonites and put the city of Rabbah under siege.
First campaign David stayed back and got
himself in trouble. He lusted after Bathsheba and got her pregnant. To cover up
his sin he ended up killing her husband Uriah by ordering him to the front
lines and having everyone else fall back, leaving him stranded.
Everyone points to this as the downfall of
his dynasty, but I suggest it was just a symptom. David was a “ladies man”
right from the start with a harem of wives and just women for sex (concubines).
He had lustful urges and could not contain them, eventually those urges ended
up in his affair. The only difference between this one and the others was this
was with a married woman. Why was it ok for David to have sex slaves that he
was not married to, but it was not ok for him to have the affair? Neither were
ok, just one lead to murder.
Verse 12:4 is the end of a story the
prophet Nathan told David:
Now a traveler
came to the city to visit the rich man. To offer a proper welcome,
the rich man knew he needed to fix a meal, but he did not want to take one of
the animals from his flocks and herds. So instead he stole the poor man’s ewe
lamb and had it killed and cooked for his guest.
This was a story about what David had just done,
my question is was the ewe Uriah or Bathsheba?
Now the dysfunction of his family continues
with Tamar sister of Absalom. She was tricked to help her half-brother Amnon
who raped her and ruined her life. In return Absalom waited, but eventually too
revenge and killed Amnon. This was just another sign of David’s lust.
Now I am not saying “blended” families are
wrong, this was not a “blended” family. This was David’s lustful urges creating
multiple off spring that he could not or would not raise and teach the ways of
the Lord. He just assumed they would learn by example and they did. They did by
learning not controlling their urges and taking revenge. Unfortunately this
dysfunction is rampant among the family with it continuing through the
generations. But one could say it’s not David’s sins, but rather our nature
that caused these problems.
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