2 Samuel 13

We study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.

We have extra copies.

If you didn't bring one, you'd like one to follow along.

This would be a good day to have a copy of the text in front of you.

We're gonna run through all of chapter 13 here in 2 Samuel.

Some of you know uh where we're at.

You you you've been with us as we studied uh chapters 11 and 12, especially, which uh really describe some of the events around some of the darkest days uh in David, King David's life, when he uh fell to lust and uh uh kidnapped and and and raped Bathsheba and uh arranged for the murder uh or the killing rather of her husband uh in battle, and then uh uh put together a conspiracy, a big cover-up.

And uh so it's quite a dark time in his life.

He repented.

Uh uh God spoke through the prophet Nathan and uh confronted him and then uh uh uh communicated, God communicated to David he would forgive him his sins, but there would be consequences.

And some of those consequences we're gonna be reading about today in chapter 13, uh, as Kim uh prayed for me.

So uh I so appreciate that she did.

It is a it is a difficult chapter.

And I might even say to if you have uh small children with you here today, especially just to be aware of the fact that that's uh come some of that kind of stuff is in this chapter, and you may or may uh uh may not want your kids to to hear some of this stuff.

It's pretty dark, uh, but I think it's important.

And uh I'll tell you why uh a little bit later we'll explore that together.

Set your eyes on the page.

Let's read the text.

It was after this, all these things that had happened, and and uh uh the battle with uh uh Rabbah and uh Joab at the city of Rabbah.

David goes out and joins a battle, they defeat the Ammonites, all of that.

Uh, after all of this has happened, Absalom, the son of David, had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar, and Amnon, the son of David, loved her.

Amnon was the first uhborn son of David.

That makes him the apparent heir to the throne.

He's got a lot of power, privilege, position, authority.

Um, but um he is uh half-brother to Absalom.

Absalom really will be the focus of uh all the way up to chapter 20.

His name is mentioned 90 times.

Uh Absalom.

So it's it's he's he's but for today, uh he's a part of this, but he's he's not the only part of it.

But so Abs uh Amnon, the son of David, loved Tamar, who was Absalom's uh full sister.

Amnon was so frustrated because of his sister Tamar that he made himself ill.

Uh, for she was a virgin, and it seemed hard to Amnon to do anything to her.

Uh if that sounds like there's mischief in his mind, there is.

Um it is uh I mean this is one of those chapters where you just scratch your head a lot.

But Amnon had a friend whose name, and I'll put friend in quotes, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother, and Jonadab was a very shrewd man.

By the way, all the key personalities in this chapter are related.

They're all part of the same extended family.

So this Jonadab is actually cousin to Amnon and nephew to David.

And Absalom, Amnon, and Tamar are all children of David's, even though David has at this point somewhere between eight and ten wives.

We've got eight names, but we understand there may have been more.

And so uh, you know, if you thought your family was dysfunctional in any way, um give it up.

Okay, so uh so here's what happens.

Um Amnon is is uh frustrated.

He he would like very much to have Tamar, and that's exactly uh what he wants.

He doesn't really want to be in a relationship with her.

Uh Amnon uh has this friend named Jon Adab, the son of Shemiah David's brother.

Jon Adab was a shrewd man.

So while Tamar is described as a beautiful young virgin, uh here's Jon Adab in contrast, who's described as a shrewd man.

Uh he is, some of your translations may say crafty or clever, perhaps.

He will be an example of cleverness without character, which is a bad combination.

When you have no character and you're clever, it just makes you a clever fool or a clever sinner.

And so what happens is he's a shrewd man.

He said to him, that means Jonadab said to Amnon, O son of the king, why are you so depressed morning after morning?

Will you not tell me?

Then Amnon said to him, I'm in love with Tamar, the sister of my brother Absalom.

Jonadab then said to him, Lie down on your bed, pretend to be ill.

When your father comes to see you, say to him, Please let my sister Tamar come and give me some food to eat, and let her prepare the food in my sight that I may see it and eat from her hand.

He's clever.

And he's got a scheme.

And he shares this scheme, this plan with Amnon to draw Father David, King David, into the picture so that his deeds will in some way be in the shadow of King David as well.

Amnon lay down, pretended to be ill when the king came to see him.

Amnon said to the king, please let my sister Tamar come and make me a couple of cakes in my sight that I may eat from her hand.

Seems to me like David should have seen a red flag here.

David sent to the house for Tamar, saying, Go now to your brother Amnon's house and prepare food for him.

Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house, and he was lying down, and she took dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, baked the cakes, took the pan and dish, and dished them out before him, but he refused to eat it.

And Amnon said, Have everyone go from me.

So everyone went out from him.

And so you start to get a sense that this isn't right, something's gone off the tracks here.

And she, who's just doing exactly what her father asked her to do and being faithful to her half-brother, and who was ill, supposedly, and she's serving and doing this, and yet he's running everyone out of the house.

Verse 10, then Amnon says to Tamar, Bring the food into my bedroom.

So evidently he's in a separate chamber, uh, just off from where uh the kitchen and the common area was, that I may eat from your hand.

So Tamar took the cakes which she had made and brought them into the bedroom of her brother Amnon.

When she brought them to him to eat, he took hold of her, and he said to her, Come lie with me, my sister.

But she answered him, No, my brother.

No, should have been enough.

My brother says that's not right.

We're not related in a way that would allow for that.

Do not violate me.

And that's she's really explaining it too.

For such a thing is not done in Israel, really boldly explaining to him that not here.

That's done in pagan nations, but not here.

Do not do this disgraceful thing.

Now she characterizes it in uh several different ways here.

As for me, what where could I get rid of my reproach or my shame?

As for you, you will be like one of the fools in Israel.

This is not gonna just have an impact on me, but it's gonna have an impact on you as well.

You, the firstborn son of the king, you, the heir apparent to the throne.

This will have an impact on you.

You will look like a fool, but really you will look godless in the midst of a nation that's supposed to be serving God.

And therefore, please speak to the king.

And she's looking for just one perhaps something that might make him think twice, for he will not withhold me from you, suggesting that perhaps the king, David, would allow them to marry, which was against Levitical law.

Leviticus 18 prohibited that.

However, she probably knew, as did David, the story of Abraham and Sarah, who were half brother and half sister, and who yet were married, and perhaps she is trying to appeal to Amnon in this moment of unbridled passion, that perhaps he would think twice and there might be another way.

Um he wouldn't listen to her since he was stronger than her, he violated her and lay with her.

And Amnon hated her, which is such a turn.

He lusted after her, he said he loved her, he said he couldn't live without her, he manipulated everything to be able to have her, and he has her, now he hates her.

He moves from lust to loathing so quickly, doesn't he?

He hated her with a very great hatred, for the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her, and Amnon said to her, Get up, go away.

It's just two words in the Hebrew, get out, basically.

She said to him, No.

It's the second time she said no, by the way, because this wrong in sending me away is greater than the other that you have done to me.

Yet he would not listen to her.

Then he called his young man who attended him and said, Now throw this woman out of my presence and lock the door behind her.

She had on a long-sleeved garment, for in this manner the virgin daughters of the king dressed themselves in robes.

In other words, she proudly was a virgin.

Boy, in our culture, you wonder where that went.

But she proudly was virginist, a virginist woman, and and and wore clothing appropriate to indicate that.

Um, and that she was one of the daughters of the king as well.

Then his attendant took her out and locked the door behind her.

Tamar put ashes on her head, tore her long-sleeved garment, basically saying, No, I'm not anymore.

And she put ashes on her head, tore her long-sleeve garment that was on her, and she put her hand on her head and she went away, crying aloud as she went.

And Absalom, her brother, said to her, Has Amnon, your brother been with you, but now keep silent, my sister.

He is your brother.

Do not take this matter to heart.

And again, somebody not listening to her in a way, in a way that's hurtful.

Trying to just merely cover up.

Where did he learn that?

Cover up.

Tamar remained and was desolate in her brother Absalom's house.

So she finds refuge there, but it's a desolate refuge.

Her future is shot.

Her hope as a beautiful princess.

Her hope has been gutted because of this evil, despicable act that her half-brother committed against her.

When the King David heard about these matters, verse 21, he was very angry.

But he didn't do anything.

And what you read about here is a man who I think has checked out on his responsibility.

And uh Absalom did not speak to Amnon, either good or bad.

So there's quiet, and there's ignoring each other, avoiding each other.

For Absalom hated Amnon because he had violated his sister Tamar.

Now it came about after two full years that Absalom had sheep shears in Baal Hazor, which is uh near Ephraim.

This would be those of you who have been to Jerusalem, probably eight miles, nine miles maybe to the north.

Uh Absalom invited all the king's sons.

So this is Absalom the third son of King David.

Uh we don't know what happened to the Chileab, the uh second son of David.

He seems to have disappeared from the pages, evidently not part of the record that we need to know.

But in this particular moment, Absalom, who will later uh definitely desire to take the kingdom, take the throne.

Right now, anyway, he is inviting all of the the uh uh king's sons to come to this sheep shearing, which is a festival, it's a feast, it's a it's it's a time of great celebration.

It's been two years since the event we just read about, and and surely all of the sons of King David would want to come.

Absalom came to the king and said, Behold, now your servant has sheep shearers.

Please let the king and his servants go with your servant.

The king said to Absalom, No, my son, we should not all go, lest we be burdensome to you.

In other words, it might just be too many people, you're trying to get work done, and you're trying to have a celebration, but some of us don't do that kind of thing.

And maybe David's too old at this point to where he doesn't just doesn't want to go.

Although he urged him, uh, although the idea there is, although Absalom urged David, uh he would not go, but he did bless him.

Then Absalom said, If not, please let my brother Amnon go with us.

And the king said to him, Why should he go with you?

I don't know whether the curiosity there is because he and Ab, he knows that Absalom and Amnon haven't been talking for two years, or why did you isolate him and and and and not mention the other uh sons as well?

Absalom commanded his servant, saying, Um uh to uh well, verse 27, I'm sorry.

He he finally agrees to let Amnon and all the king's sons go with him.

Verse 28, Absalom commanded his servants, saying, See now when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, strike Amnon, then put him to death.

Do not fear, have not I myself commanded you, be courageous and be valiant.

So it's courageous and valiant for you to conspire with me to murder my brother.

Uh to take revenge, vengeance is mine, says the Lord, that's because humans aren't good at this.

We don't do that well.

Um but here he wants to do this thing and he wants his servants to be a part of it.

Just like much like David didn't want to put this sword through Uriah himself, so he sends him to Joab and conspires, works up this thing where Joab will be put on the front lines and where he will be killed.

Um servants of Absalom did to Amnon just as Absalom had commanded, and all the king's sons rose, and each mounted his mule and fled.

So you can just see them scattering, all the sons.

They think Absalom's making a play for the throne.

He's going to kill all of them, and and and so they're fleeing for their lives.

It was while they were on the way, while they're fleeing, the report came to David saying, Absalom has struck down all the king's sons, and not one of them is left.

I wonder where that report came from.

King arose, tore his clothes, lay on the ground, all his servants were standing by with clothes torn.

Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother, responded, Do not let my lord suppose they have put to death all the young men, the king's sons, for Amnon alone is dead, because by the intent of Absalom, this has been determined since the day that he violated his sister Tamar.

He knows far too much in that particular moment about all the details of what's going on eight or nine miles away.

Remember, they weren't tweeting this out.

He knows far too much.

He must be involved somehow in some conspiracy.

Jonadab, this one who I think just, his lust is not sexual pleasure like Amnon's was.

His lust is power and being close to the center of things and being in the know all the time.

So Jonadab tells him it's not, it's it's not all of the sons, uh, it's just one of them, only Amnon is dead.

34.

Absalom had fled.

The young man who was the watchman raised his eyes and looked, behold, many people were coming from the road behind him by the side of the mountain.

And Jonadab said to the king, Behold, the king's servants have come.

See, in other words, your sons are here, according to your servant's word.

In other words, just like I said, so it has happened.

He sure wants to look good in King David's eyes, doesn't he?

Yeah.

Hmm.

Just like I said, it's happened.

See, I was right.

It came about as soon as he had finished speaking, that behold, the king's sons came.

And they lifted their voices and they wept, and also the king and all his servants wept very bitterly.

Absalom fled and went to Talmai, the son of Amihud, the king of Geshir.

And again, uh just to continue to inform you that all of these people are related.

Jonadab is Amnon's cousin.

Jonadab is the friend of uh or is the cousin of Absalom as well.

Jonadab is the nephew of David.

Absalom is now running to the king of Geshir, that's his grandfather.

So everybody is related in some way.

He runs there, and he's going to be there for three years.

We're told he fled and gone to Geshir, and he was there three years.

39, the heart of King David longed to go out to Absalom, for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.

And that's another way of saying, after a period of time, his grieving for Amnon ended, and he missed his son Absalom, and he longed for him.

And we close there.

And some of you go, wow.

We take a little deep breath.

What we have here are five portraits, these principal characters, anyway.

We have David chosen by God to become the king of Israel, mighty man of uh of uh uh military might and strategy, uh a man after God's own heart.

He's called actually by God himself, yet broken himself by lust, murder, deceitfulness, self-centeredness.

This is David.

Here in chapter 13, he's marked by additional characteristics that aren't so attractive.

Gullibility.

Everybody's working him.

Um moral weakness, he's he's pusillanimous.

He has he has no courage to even confront his own children.

Um he ought to be able to do that.

See, even when you have no moral authority because you have fallen in like manner, which is the case with him.

You still moral authority is one thing, but moral responsibility is another thing.

See, I don't get up here every Sunday and tell you stuff because I've got it worked into my life perfectly.

You know?

We open the Bible because it's true.

Not because any one of us has it figured out, not because any one of us has it worked out.

Um, but if we had to wait till we had it all worked out, we'd get we'd never open the book.

So that's David.

Amnon, firstborn son of the king, David, along with uh Hinuim, his one of his wives.

Uh Absalom, third son to David, along with his wife Ma'akah.

So Absalom, Absalom and Amnon are therefore half-brothers.

Uh Jonadab is called friend, but he's really David's nephew, Amnon's cousin.

And Tamar, the full sister of Absalom, is David's daughter, along with his wife Ma'akah, the beautiful princess, half-sister.

Now, those are the five primary personalities in chapter 13 of 2 Samuel.

What is shocking to me is who is not mentioned.

God is not mentioned here.

Anywhere in this chapter.

And it's probably proper because the stuff that goes on in this chapter is what is an example of what happens when a life is devoid of God.

Okay?

That's what happens to us when we say, God doesn't matter, I don't need to believe, I don't need to trust, I don't need to obey, I don't need to hope in.

Just leave God out, and this is what happens.

These are the kinds of things that happen.

Somebody would still say, then why is this chapter in the Bible if it doesn't mention God?

And that's what I hope to explore, if you'll give me just a few more minutes of your time.

First of all, I think it's because God wants us to know he's aware of our capacity for depravity.

God is aware of our capacity.

Now, this will be, this may be a shock to some of you, but he already knows what a wretch I am.

And he already knows what a wretch you are, and he already knew what a wretch David was.

And he knows what a wretch Amnon, Absalom are.

Uh lust, sexual lust, and then that lust for revenge that's there.

But here in these five main personalities, we see uh David lacks this combination of love and authority to confront and correct his children.

And they've now begun to follow in his steps.

Yeah.

And they're thinking of women like David did, Bathsheba, she's an object to have.

Amnon is thinking that way about Tamar.

She's an object to have.

Absalom is thinking about Amnon, like David thought about Uriah.

I gotta get him out of the way.

He's an obstacle.

Um, and Amnon is filled with rage, anger, revenge, probably wounded pride.

That's my sister.

I gotta stand up for my sister, you know, and all of that.

Although there is some.

Hint that Absalom had some expressed some kindness toward his sister, in that in a few chapters, we'll read that he names his one of his daughters Tamar to honor his sister in spite of all that's happened to her.

Amnon, privileged, powerful, amoral, and cruel, a bad combination.

He was among the wolves who prey upon the weaker and the vulnerable.

We're told that Tamar was beautiful.

With Amnon, one look was allowed to linger longer than it should have.

He hoped to catch her eye.

He wanted to have her.

And so flirtation led to imagination.

And that led to action at some point.

Amnon's mind was locked in the inescapable vice grip of lust.

The imagination stirred, lust was invited and indulged.

I don't uh if you're here and you don't know the difference between lust and love, let me just say it this way.

Lust says, um, or rather, love says, what can I do for you?

But lust says, what can you do for me?

And and and we got to be awakened to the difference.

Because we use love all the time.

We talk about we use love in so many different ways.

It's just so thinned out, you know.

I love I love pepperoni pizza.

But I love my wife.

And trust me, my wife wants to be more to mean more to me than a pepperoni pizza.

Pepperoni pizza I want to consume.

You know, and that's that's really what lust ends up being.

We treat somebody like a commodity to be consumed.

And we can do that, folks.

Listen to me.

Don't sit here and put look down your nose 3,000 years at these people and think this can't happen to you.

We do that to people in our own families.

We do that to people at our offices, we do that to people all the time.

And we need to be awakened at some point and uh uh to the fact that that can happen to us as well.

Let him who stands take heed lest he fall, the apostle Paul said.

And that can happen to us just as easy.

Absalom, full of anger, sought revenge, um, wanted to kill Amnon.

Um both sons of David were amoral, really, uh void of any sense of, unconcerned at all about the rightness or wrongness of their deeds and their thoughts.

Jonadab, the example of a cleverness without character, used his craftiness to inflame evil desires in Amnon, and then Jonadab manipulated himself into a position to endear himself with King David with the news that it wasn't all his sons.

I kind of think, I don't know, it's not in the script.

I know I'm speculating, but I kind of think it's Jonadab that brought the early report that all your sons are dead, so he could bring the latter report.

No, it's not all your sons that are dead.

It's just Amnon.

And he manipulated the whole thing.

Why?

Because he's clever.

And he wants to be close to power and he wants to be close to the inside, track on stuff.

Tamar is the only person in the entire chapter that showed any character or integrity.

She was obedient to her father, willing to serve her brother, knew the difference between what was right and what was wrong, and she wasn't afraid to say so.

What about us in our time, in our culture?

Timid.

Too timid, so often, aren't we?

Yet Tamar is among those wounded by one of the wolves in this story.

Tamar suffered a great injustice.

She was neither heard nor respected by those she should have been able to trust.

She was violated by her own family member, and her prospects of a good future were ripped away from her by this evil and despicable act perpetrated on her by her brother.

Yes, I asked the question all week long.

Lord, why is this chapter in the Bible?

Uh yeah.

It's there because we God wants us to know he's aware of our capacity for depravity.

And he wants us to join him in his mission on this earth.

And John Stotts had a beautiful thing, he said, I long to see more Christian anger toward evil and more Christian compassion toward its victims.

Let's be about that business.

Let's be about that business of pushing back the darkness.

And for some of us, it looks like one thing.

For some of us, it looks like another thing.

But here's what it never looks like: silence like David.

You know, angry, but your mouth stays shut.

You don't confront your children.

You don't tell, you don't, you don't teach your children.

I tell you what, you are teaching your children by your silence, David.

You are teaching your children by your falling to lust and your conspiring to murder.

You're teaching them a lot.

More is caught than is taught.

So open your mouth and speak.

And then begin to model for your children what you hope they will learn.

God's aware of our capacity for depravity.

The problem is most of us are not in this world that we live in.

From the site Fight the New Drug, talking about, it talks about pornography.

34% of the internet users have been exposed to unwanted porn via ads, pop-ups, and that sort of thing.

In other words, you don't have to go looking for it.

It's coming looking for you.

And all of us, especially guys who are a little more vulnerable to this sort of thing, we know this.

We can't even drive down the road down here without some billboard, you know, suggesting something to us.

Um, and and it's all meant to stir us up.

35%, according to Fight the New Drug, 35% of all internet downloads are porn related.

Porn sites receive more regular traffic, get this, than Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter combined each month.

That's how big a business lust is.

Okay?

Sexual lust.

At least 30%, according to Huffington Post, no Christian magazine, um, at least 30% of all data transferred across the internet is porn related, and uh the teen porn category is top porn site searches for the last six years.

Teenage, uh, teenage-oriented pornography.

It should come then as no surprise that uh the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network Center has estimated there are on the average 434,000 cases of rape and sexual assault in the U.S.

every year.

That's one every 73 seconds, folks.

These things ought not to be so.

Uh 54% of those will be crimes committed against individuals between the ages of 18 and 34.

One out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.

That means somebody in this room, more than somebody, more than one in this room.

Um it means there are likely some uh on the internet uh uh that watch us on the uh web as well.

82% of all juvenile victims and 90% of adult victims are of rape are females.

Brothers and sisters, again, this ought not to be so.

I believe God has preserved this shocking story in 2 Samuel chapter 13 to um uh through these centuries, in large part because he wants us to be horrified by it.

2 Samuel 13 · chapter mention

He wants us to be repulsed this morning.

So if you're repulsed, you're sensing the right thing.

Your conscience is still alive, your conscience is still awake, and you two are experiencing some kind of moral outrage just as is proper.

Amnon's lust for Tamar had been cultivated in his imagination, mind, and heart.

He dwelled upon and imagined the possibilities, plotted scenarios, and soon it grew into an obsession.

It was wrong in every way, and he knew it, but the forbidden fruit fueled his lust.

You may have noticed that Tamar said no more than once.

She should not have had to say it at all.

Or once should have been enough.

So I longed to see more Christian anger towards evil in the world and more Christian compassion for its victims.

Secondly, and I have five points, so hold on.

I'll try to get through the rest of them a little quicker.

Um, secondly, God is aware of those wounded by the ravages of sin.

Because stories like this are in our Bibles, and our Bible is not just this sort of Pollyanna shined up sort of book that has pictures and everybody's beautiful people and everybody's wonderful, and all everything ends with a happy ending.

Because this story is here in our Bibles, I think God is saying, I understand, I know what's going on down there.

I'm aware of those who are victims of and wounded by these ravages of sin like this.

And he wants us to know that every person is created in God's image, every person is somebody's daughter or son.

We should treat every person with due respect.

God is on the side of the weak and the vulnerable, make no mistake about it.

Those who have suffered can trust that every day, that great day that this Bible talks about, is one day closer.

That great day when everything will be set right, when every tear will be wiped away from every eye.

And so the Bible gives us an eternal perspective, even on the most heinous of activities, even when we have been victims of them.

John Paul Dickinson, uh Anglican Christian apologist, said the Bible's theme of judgment is rarely a theological scare tactic to convince us to be good.

It's far more often a pledge to wounded humanity that God sees everything, hears the cry for justice, and will one day bring his comfort in the form of justice against every evil act.

Amen.

Yeah, I'm glad for that.

Pushing back the darkness includes the recognition that while many of us have been on the receiving end of some kind of injustice, sin has also led many people to be on the giving side as well.

We've not always loved our neighbors as we ought.

We may not have committed rape or murder, but we've not always loved our neighbors as we ought to.

We've allowed other kinds of darkness and sin to take root in our hearts, be it the scourge of racism, be it the scourge of just being a controlling person.

When we give quarter to any of those things, we're allowing the darkness to advance instead of pushing it back.

And praise the Lord, one day he intends, by his almighty power, to wrap up human history and to bring about justice against every evil act.

I'm looking forward to that day.

Thirdly, our sins cast a long dark shadow.

No sin is completely private.

Somebody's watching you, and they may be mimicking you just like Amnon mimicked David.

Absalom mimicked David.

Dad thinks it's okay to objectify women.

Dad thinks it's okay to take life.

I guess I'll do that too.

What are we doing?

We got to be aware of the fact that somebody's watching you, man.

Somebody's watching me.

You know?

And know it's not on you and it's not on me whether or not they'll ultimately be saved.

But let's model the freedom and the beauty of the gospel of grace for people.

Let's model what it looks like to have the fruit of the Spirit flourishing in our lives, blooming, blossoming, love, joy, peace, self-control is one of them.

Meekness, kindness.

Where are those things in your life?

Are they evident?

Are they visible in your life?

Jen Wilken has a book called In His Image, Ten Ways, God calls us to reflect on his character.

In it, she says, though in human terms, justice is portrayed as blind, the justice of God is wide-eyed and clear-sighted.

Not only is he the judge, he is also the eyewitness who testifies to the facts.

Perfectly clear-sighted in his recollections, there is no such thing as a secret sin.

Sin's shadows run long and dark.

David's sinful shadow put his sons in the darkness.

And they put Tamar in the darkness too, in a different way.

And your sins, my sins, our sins, their shadows will run dark and long.

I've got to move on.

Fourth, we must be discerning, not every influencer seeks to influence us for the good.

Do you have a Jonadab in your life?

Jonadab was an influencer.

He's whispering in Amnon's ear.

Here's how to do it.

Get your dad involved.

And if you get your dad involved, it'll look better.

And here's what you do: pretend to be sick.

Everybody's going to be kind to a sick person, you know?

And then with the whole thing with the news about the death of the sons and all that sort of thing.

Jonadab is again a man clever without character.

Who leads you in clever ways away from godliness?

Who leads you away from spiritual disciplines?

Who leads you away from, in some way?

Who leads you toward anger, toward lust, toward the kind of acrimony that everybody gets sucked into in this world?

Who leads you in those ways?

Maybe you've got some Jonadabs you need to say goodbye to.

That would have been probably the best thing Amnon could have done.

Jonadab, thanks, bro, but I'm not listening to you anymore.

And we might need to say goodbye to some Jonadabs in our lives.

Eugene Peterson, the world's full of people like this, eager to put their wits to the service of other people's evil.

Intelligence and imagination that is generated daily in the cause of assisting others to acquire legitimate power, illegitimate power, and indulge wrongful pleasure is astounding.

So well said.

So true.

There are a lot of people like this.

They want to be on the inside, they want to be on the know.

They want to be the people that are at the center.

And so they're clever and conniving, and they really don't care about you.

So when it says he had a friend, put friend in quotes.

Because Jonadab is the kind of friend that is no friend.

He really doesn't have your highest good in mind.

I gotta keep moving.

This is the beautiful truth I want to get to.

I'm so glad after all of this to be able to say that because of the power of the gospel, the cycle of moral failure can be broken, and one day all of our brokenness will be healed.

Yeah, the life-changing power of the gospel means that just because your dad or your mom did it doesn't mean you have to do it.

And it also means just because your best friend did it, you don't have to do it.

And it also means just because the culture's doing it, you don't have to do it.

It's the life-changing power of the gospel of grace.

And it's also the thing that the gospel of grace is, is that it overflows with those promises and hope that one day all of our brokenness can be healed.

Whether our brokenness is, we look back over our life and we go, yeah, I should have spoken up and I didn't.

And so we have that that kind of regret of a failed father like David has here.

Or whether our brokenness is we were we've been some way violated by others, like Tamar, people we thought we could trust.

Or whether our whether our brokenness is is we've been in the vice grip of some addiction or some lust that's got us, and we just we can't seem to.

Well, listen, folks, this is what the gospel is.

It's good news for people that can't help themselves.

It's good news for people who can't rescue themselves or save themselves.

And it's the good news that Christ has done for me what I couldn't do for myself.

And the same for you as well.

Charles Spurgeon said there are many kinds of broken hearts.

Christ is good at healing them all.

What kind do you have today?

What part of your heart has been broken?

What part of your heart has been wounded?

This same David will continue to write songs.

He'll be writing about Absalom chasing him in a little bit.

Psalm 3 will be the psalm that he writes.

It ends like this in verse 8.

Salvation belongs to our God.

See?

While he's running away from his own son who wants to kill him and take the throne from him.

And there's everything wrong about that.

David still turns to the Lord and says, Salvation belongs to you, O God.

You're the one in whom I can trust.

I'll close with this quote from Nenti Wright.

God alone satisfies the passion for justice, the longing for spirituality, the hunger for a relationship, and the yearning for beauty.

So whether you, like David, have been asleep at the wheel and you've lacked the courage of your convictions, whether like Amnon, you've been obsessed by some and the vice grip of some kind of lust, whether like Absalom, you've been possessed with revenge.

Whether like Jonadab, your lust is to get near to the center of power, and you feel you don't want to be Jonadab anymore, or you're Tamar and you've been wounded by others.

I read a chapter like this, and here's what I hear as I continue to read through my Bible.

There's a God that's aware of what's going on down here, how broken it is, and he really cares, and he can really do something about it.

And in the person and work of Christ, he has done just that.

God is the Father, unlike David, God is the Father we've always wanted and always needed.

Unlike Amnon and Absalom, Jesus is the brother and friend that we can trust.

Jesus is also the Holy Spirit.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit together are also that perfect combination of the older brother we can trust and that comforter that we so desperately need when things have gone wrong for us.

I pray that God will restore and renew each and every one of you that may be identifying in some way with Tamar.

I pray that God will challenge all of us to understand our moral responsibility, regardless of our moral failures in the past.

And I pray that God also will challenge us all as a church to see ourselves as what Jesus wants us to be, which is a city on a hill, a light that cannot be hidden.

That we might be the salt that makes people more thirsty for Jesus.

Because we ourselves have been renewed and redeemed.

We've come before him in repentance and faith, believing, hoping, and trusting in his transforming power, the power of the gospel.

Yeah, we're sinners, but yet we have been saved by grace, born again to a living hope in Christ.

That's why we gather each and every Sunday.

That's why we study through books of the Bible.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for this word sobering in so many ways.

And yet, what we need to hear from time to time, uh, lest we, like David, fall asleep at the wheel, abdicate our responsibility, don't have the courage of our convictions.

Stir us up, Lord, I pray to be your people.

Uh there's so many people out there that are dying, lost, lonely, hurt, broken.

Uh they need the hope of the gospel.

Uh I pray that you'd send us out, Lord, that the gospel might fall freely from our lips and be seen in our relationships, in the way we treat others, whether they believe what we believe or not, whether they live the way we live or not.

Uh, Lord, that we might be that city on a hill that you've called us to be.

By the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.