Today’s passage: 2 Samuel 13
Helpful thoughts:
- Lust is confused with love and it “torments.” Love produces joy. Love is a sacrifice of self for others. Lust is a sacrifice of others for myself.
- Amnon later hated Tamar simply because she refused to help him realize his desires and now posed a threat to his good image (Even though he was in the wrong)!
- Tamar on the other hand tore her clothes because was now no longer available for marriage as a virgin daughter of the king, she wore ashes in mourning, she mourned the death of the life she hoped to live. She had become an idolatrous sacrifice.
- Amnon later hated Tamar simply because she refused to help him realize his desires and now posed a threat to his good image (Even though he was in the wrong)!
- Tamar appealed to her half-brother in four ways:
- This was against the law.
- She would be shamed.
- Amnon would be shamed.
- She even offered herself in marriage. This was still illegal (Leviticus 18:9-11) but preferable to her in the desperation of the moment.
- After having Amnon killed, Absalom fled to Geshur, the homeland of his mother, where his grandfather was king.
- The violence in the household of David (2 Samuel 12:10) has begun.
Questions to consider:
- Why might David have failed to execute justice on Amnon? What emotions or thoughts would have accompanied his anger in this situation (Verse 21)?
- What part does Jonadab play in this narrative (Verses 3-5, 32-33)? How dangerous is “craftiness” which smooths over what should be abhorrent to us and surely is before our holy, righteous, just God?
- How has God shown His love for us through Christ? How does the gospel message give us a pattern for love in all our relationships, certainly including the relationship of marriage, and even in intimacy?