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Hey, this is Shelby and CJ. CJ, we're walking through second Samuel. We've been walking
through first and second Samuel for quite a while now. But we just have a few days left and we
ended a difficult episode yesterday. David was basically told that violence and calamity
are going to follow his family for all of their days. So I mean, that's what we're walking into
in these chapters. Do we see that taking place? Yeah. So second Samuel 13 is another brutal chapter
where Amnon less less after is half sister Tamar. Amnon and Tamar are David's children. And he
Amnon assaults Tamar and Absalom who's another one of David's children is enraged and he plots
to kill Amnon and eventually does and then Absalom flees. And Amnon's actions against his half
sister remind us of David's actions against Bathsheba. And this again is kind of going back to Nathan's
Oracle where he says, in the same way that you've been acting, that's how that's how your
family's getting in and of operating moving forward and how your kingdom is going to be complicated
and embroiled in all this chaos and whatnot. And in these chapters, David starts to feel really
passive, which is also alarming, I think for us as readers because we expect after the Davidic
covenant that it would almost be like utopian for the rest of Samuel, that David would rule right
justly and things would go well, but that's just not the case. Yeah. So just like you said,
we're seeing what Nathan said play out here. So it was hard to hear in our episode in our
reading yesterday. It's hard to watch today. Yeah, well said for sure. And then what happens next
is that Joe Ab, who we heard about at the beginning a second Samuel, he's David's right hand man
and he finds this wise woman to come and try to convince David to let Absalom return because Absalom
fled after killing Amnon. And David's convinced, but he doesn't really want to see Absalom. Again,
this is short of sort of showing David's passivity. And then we learned about Absalom that he was the
most handsome man in all of Israel. Wait, I heard this before. Exactly. And this reminds us of Saul.
Yeah. So all of a sudden we're thinking, is Absalom going to be like Saul? And as it turns out,
he's kind of he kind of is like Saul. So he has this beautiful hair and he's really prideful and
what can we anticipate? Probably that it's going to end up in a bad place as before. That's exactly
right. So Absalom then plots to usurp his father's throne and he starts kind of mingling with the
people and winning hearts and minds. And then eventually he calls for a coup and he tries to take over
his father's throne so much so and he's so successful that David actually has to flee. So again,
David is fleeing in the wilderness because a guy like Saul has chased him out of town.
And this again reminds us of Nathan's prophecies that the Lord would raise up some problematic
figure from your very house. And that's kind of where we're left in these chapters.
Yeah. Yeah. And it's not it's not fun to watch at all. But let me ask this question.
Is there hope in these chapters? Do we see Jesus in these chapters?
Anyway, I think so. Of course, I'm reminded again of Hannah's song about humility and true
kingship and those sorts of themes that we've come to expect in Samuel. But then we see Absalom
taking kingship for himself. And I think his actions and his character are the antithesis of Christ.
So we see Christ in this chapter because we don't see him in this chapter if that makes sense.
So Absalom comes into a city with war chariots and horses and runners essentially tanks of the
ancient world. But Jesus enters Jerusalem humbly on a donkey. Absalom tries to win hearts and minds
by tickling people's ears and being clever. Jesus' words are actually marked by truth but they
end up sort of being divisive. And they simultaneously push people away who don't want to hear his truth
but also draw people in naturally or for good reason. Absalom betrays others but Jesus is the one
who's betrayed. So we see all of the characteristics we don't want to see in Absalom and we then can
look to Christ and have a breath of fresh air for the true king. Yeah, absolutely. That was beautifully
put. You know, one thing that was mentioned in the studies is that these chapters paint a picture
that in our lives who will have highs and lows. Here we're seeing highs and lows as a result of David's
own actions. And certainly that takes place in our life although we may experience highs and lows
for other reasons as well. But something the study said is by trusting in God we are given the
help we need to make it through whatever befalls us both in the good times of our lives and
emit any disaster that may come upon us. And so as I'm reading through these and I'm thinking about
man, when I experience these highs and lows whether it be my own doing or just a fact of life
trusting in the Lord that he will get me through whatever befalls me is my hope in those times.
And so I think that's my takeaway. If you're not going through the studies with us we'd love for
you to grab those. There's a link in the show notes. We love to provide more context and depth
in that way. But of course if you don't have a study you can always just join us here each day.
We'll be back tomorrow.
