Year 7, Day 330: 2 Samuel 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

There are a myriad of lessons that can be learned from this story.  The easiest lesson to see is the lesson regarding the consequences of sin.  Amnon aspires to be with his half-sister.  In our modern culture, this is highly frowned upon, even illegal in most places.  In the ancient world, however, such type of an arrangement is not unheard of.  Even Tamar herself tells Amnon that she would be willing to marry him!  Amnon won’t wait, however.  He wants Tamar now.  He succumbs to his impulse and rapes Tamar.

The ultimate consequence of this act is that Amnon will die at Absalom’s hand.  That, however, will spur on Absalom’s revolution as we’ll hear about soon enough.  Tamar has to live with the knowledge that she is no longer a virgin daughter of the king.  This one moment of uncontrolled passion has lasting consequences not just on Amnon, not even just on the king’ family, but on the whole kingdom!  We can never know the extent of our sinfulness.

Another lesson that we can learn is the lesson of generational approval.  Some people call this generational sin.  When a parent in a family has a sinful pattern that is accepted instead of viewed as wrong, the sin tends to become accepted as the status quo in the family.  The children learn to at least accept the sin if not repeat it.  We can see this in David’s family right here.  David takes women he wants, using any means to get them.  That’s not really all that different than Amnon’s behavior.  David kills men who wrong him - except for Saul, God’s anointed.  That’s not really all that different than Absalom.  The proverbial fruit is not falling far from the tree in this story.

A third lesson that we can learn here is that blood ties people together, but those ties vary from person to person.  Absalom kills his half-brother because of what he did with Tamar.  David mourns Amnon’s death, but in spite of being furious he doesn’t comfort Absalom or Tamar after her rape or punish Amnon in any way.  David’s advisors seem to console David by telling him that only one son is dead, as if losing one son is mitigated by having a number still alive.  Human relationships are odd, and we all perceive them differently.  Human beings all place different value of relationships in general and then value their own personal relationships at differing levels as well.

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