Theological Commentary: Click Here
It is easy
to be torn on this particular passage.
On one hand, Absalom has a reason to feel the banishment from the
king. On the other hand, especially as a
Christian, it is easy to buy into the woman’s argument that God finds ways to
restore the banished. The question is, who is right? Which position is the better one?
I’ll lay out
my thoughts directly. I believe the
woman is flat out wrong. God may find a
way to restore people, but remember that this is Joab’s plan, not God’s
plan! This is Joab finding a way to
bring Absalom back. This is Joab finding
a way to keep up the appearances of the royal family and make everything seem like
it is okay.
As proof of
this, look at what happens when Absalom comes back. He goes to his house. David still won’t see him. Absalom questions Joab why he was brought
back and indicates that it would have been better for him to stay away. In other words, there is no repentance felt
on Absalom’s behalf. There is no
repentance required by David, either!
That’s a
huge point. When God deals with sin, He
deals with it one of two ways. In one
case, God righteously judges the unrepentant.
In the other case, God forgives the humbly repentant. That’s how we know God is at work: we see
either righteous judgment or humble repentance.
We don’t get
that in this story at all. Absalom doesn’t
change. In fact, we could make a case
that he becomes even more petulant. Neither
is there judgment shown in this passage, either. While this sounds like a great story of
forgiveness and redemption at the outset, this is actually a great example of
cheap grace and its ineffectiveness.
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