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The Widow of Tekoah
Joab realized how much the king longed to see Absalom. 2 So he sent for a woman from Tekoa who had a reputation for great wisdom. He said to her, “Pretend you are in mourning; wear mourning clothes and don’t put on lotions.* Act like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for a long time. 3 Then go to the king and tell him the story I am about to tell you.” Then Joab told her what to say.
4 When the woman from Tekoa approached the king, she bowed with her face to the ground in deep respect and cried out, “O king! Help me!”
5 “What’s the trouble?” the king asked.
“Alas, I am a widow!” she replied. “My husband is dead. 6 My two sons had a fight out in the field. And since no one was there to stop it, one of them was killed. 7 Now the rest of the family is demanding, ‘Let us have your son. We will execute him for murdering his brother. He doesn’t deserve to inherit his family’s property.’ They want to extinguish the only coal I have left, and my husband’s name and family will disappear from the face of the earth.”
8 “Leave it to me,” the king told her. “Go home, and I’ll see to it that no one touches him.”
9 “Oh, thank you, my lord the king,” the woman from Tekoa replied. “If you are criticized for helping me, let the blame fall on me and on my father’s house, and let the king and his throne be innocent.”
10 “If anyone objects,” the king said, “bring him to me. I can assure you he will never complain again!”
11 Then she said, “Please swear to me by the Lord your God that you won’t let anyone take vengeance against my son. I want no more bloodshed.”
“As surely as the Lord lives,” he replied, “not a hair on your son’s head will be disturbed!”
12 “Please allow me to ask one more thing of my lord the king,” she said.
“Go ahead and speak,” he responded.
13 She replied, “Why don’t you do as much for the people of God as you have promised to do for me? You have convicted yourself in making this decision, because you have refused to bring home your own banished son. 14 All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God does not just sweep life away; instead, he devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from him.
15 “I have come to plead with my lord the king because people have threatened me. I said to myself, ‘Perhaps the king will listen to me 16 and rescue us from those who would cut us off from the inheritance* God has given us. 17 Yes, my lord the king will give us peace of mind again.’ I know that you are like an angel of God in discerning good from evil. May the Lord your God be with you.”
18 “I must know one thing,” the king replied, “and tell me the truth.”
“Yes, my lord the king,” she responded.
19 “Did Joab put you up to this?”
And the woman replied, “My lord the king, how can I deny it? Nobody can hide anything from you. Yes, Joab sent me and told me what to say. 20 He did it to place the matter before you in a different light. But you are as wise as an angel of God, and you understand everything that happens among us!”
21 So the king sent for Joab and told him, “All right, go and bring back the young man Absalom.”
22 Joab bowed with his face to the ground in deep respect and said, “At last I know that I have gained your approval, my lord the king, for you have granted me this request!”
I. There is a conflict in David’s heart between his duty to the people in being a just king and his love for his children.
A. Courts today would call this a conflict of interests. David would never have been allowed to judge this case.
B. David as king has absolute power and the temptation is always there to abuse that power.
C. As a father David’s heart is broken for the plight of his son Absalom
D. As a king his heart is burdened to do what is just even though Absalom is his son.
Dealing with a Rebellious Son
18 “Suppose a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they discipline him. 19 In such a case, the father and mother must take the son to the elders as they hold court at the town gate. 20 The parents must say to the elders, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of his town must stone him to death. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.
II. There are no recorded situations where a father ever did this.
A. It’s just too much to ask.
B. Decisions made in situations of life or death are better made objectively.
C. Abraham was commanded by God to offer his son for a sacrifice. Abraham was obedient which only demonstrates why Abraham is known as the father of those that believe. His faith was gigantic.
D. And even Abraham’s hand was stayed; he did not have to go through with it.
E. God was in the same situation when it came to Cain but chose to show mercy.
III. How is God’s justice reconciled with his mercy?
A. We all must needs die and are as water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again.
1. Before a man can have abundant life he must deal with his own mortality.
2. Every man shall die for his own sin
3. David said, “I go the way of all the earth”
4. If there be no resurrection of the dead, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. (Go for the gusto, get all
5. If in this life only we have hope in God we are of all men most miserable
6. But now is Jesus raised from the dead and become the first fruits of them that sleep. For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive
IV. Neither does God respect any person.
A. God always judges objectively
B. If he is not just he is less than God.
C. He sits on his throne as David did, wanting to bring his children home but that is in conflict with his own nature.
V. Yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him.
A. We stand before the King in our guilt and shame with no excuses. We are sentenced to suffering and death. God passes the sentence and we are doomed!
B. Jesus steps forward out of the courtroom and volunteers to take our punishment for us.
C. Just as Moses smote the rock in the wilderness, God the father smote his son, “The stone that the builders rejected” and his justice was satisfied with Christ’s offering of himself. |
