Daily Reading
Daily Thought
There is irony in Absalom’s name; it means peaceful. His life was anything but. It began before he was born. When his father, King David, committed adultery and murder, Nathan pronounced God’s judgment on David’s family, “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife” (2Samuel 12:10). Chapters 13-15 tell of torrid events that wreak havoc in David’s household. At the center of the storm is Absalom.
David had many wives, and with many wives came many children, each with the same father, not necessarily the same mother. Amnon thought his half-sister Tamar beautiful and desired her until he took her by force, then disposed of her in disgrace. Absalom, Tamar’s full-brother, brooded about revenge against his half-brother for two years before killing Amnon. The other brothers fled Absalom, fearing they could be next, and Absalom himself fled the city of David, fearing his father’s displeasure.
It took some convincing, but King David eventually invited Absalom back to Jerusalem; however, he refused to see Absalom for two more years. During that time, the handsome Absalom stole the hearts and loyalty of many of the people, including Ahithophel, a trusted advisor to the king. It turns out Bathsheba, the woman of David’s adultery, whose husband David murdered, was the daughter of Eliam (2Samuel 11:3), the son of Ahithophel (2Samuel 23:34), thus, Ahithophel, David’s counselor, was Bathsheba’s grandfather. Sin weaves a nasty web. At chapter’s end, David fled his throne, fearing the now strong Absalom.
The reason David ends up exiled from his city and his kingdom traces backward to choices, bad choices, he made. David’s adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah are glaringly bad, but that’s not when his bad choices began. “It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful” (2Samuel 11:2). Wrong place to be, but still not the beginning of bad choices. Turn back one more verse, “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, …David remained at Jerusalem” (2Samuel 11:1). There it is!
As a teenager, I was told “nothing good happens after midnight.” Every teenager hears this because every mother says it. What’s wrong with 1am? Perhaps nothing, but after midnight is the wrong time to be in the wrong place, and that’s David’s situation. David was supposed to be at war. War is where the men were, leaving all their wives at home in Jerusalem. Where David was. On the palace roof. At bathing time. Wrong time, wrong place. David did not fall into sin, as if by chance. Temptation seeks opportunity and David provided it.
Daily Prayer
Wonderful God, You made this world and called everything in it good. You gave this world to the people You created and told us to take care of it. You said everything is yours except one thing, and we then wanted the one thing.
God, shape my heart to desire nothing more than You and Your kingdom. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, may I think about these things. Strengthen my resolve, keep me from evil, and do not let me give sin a foothold in my life. May my eyes at all times be focused on You.
Amen
Daily Question
What are places in your life where sin can most easily gain a foothold?