2 SAMUEL 13 - THE POWER AND CONSEQUENCES OF SIN
2 Samuel 13
In the last Chapter, Nathan gave a prophecy in Vs. 10-12 about what would happen to David and his family as a result of his sin with Bathsheba and predicted that there would be violence and evil in his own house. In Chapter 13, this prophecy begins to come true through a perverse and sad series of events.
David’s son, Amnon, had a half-sister, Tamar, who was a virgin and very beautiful, and he was attracted to her. Vs. 1 says that Amnon “loved” her, but it was not really a true love, because it was a love based in lust. True love always seeks to purify its object, not degrade it. Amnon could not get rid of his lust for her, and so he consulted with his friend, Jonadab, who was David’s nephew. Rather than give Amnon godly and edifying advice, Jonadab comes up with a plan to deceive Tamar into being alone with Amnon in his bedroom so he could have his way with her. This is not the kind of friend that believers need to have or seek advice from. A godly friend would have told Amnon something like the counsel we have in 2 Tim. 2:22 to flee youthful lusts, and would have helped him kill his lust, not feed it.
Amnon carries out the plan and forces himself on her. After that, he professes that he hates Tamar, and sends her away. This is in violation of Hebrew law which would have required him to marry her and to provide for her the rest of her life. Having lost her virginity, it would have been very difficult for Tamar in that culture to ever find a husband. So, she ended up being violated not only sexually but emotionally, relationally, and economically as well. The perversion of Amnon’s sin is compounded by the deceitfulness of his heart that led him to hate her, even though she was completely innocent, and not hate his own sin, even though he was fully guilty. When Absalom, another one of David’s sons, hears of all this, he takes Tamar into his home, and after two years hatches a plan to avenge his sister by killing Amnon. He carries out the plan, and then flees to a foreign land. David is, of course, grief stricken by all of this.
In what happens in this Chapter, we see that while God frees His people from the eternal consequences of their sin, the consequences of sin still remain in this life and in this world. We also see that although as David declared in Ps. 51:4, the ultimate problem with sin is that it is an offense against God, our sin still affects us and those around us. Sin will always produce devastating results even though we can’t always immediately see them, and here we see over time that from one man’s lust to satisfy sexual desire outside of God’s plan, the lives of several people are ruined. We also see here that the sins of parents are sometimes followed by their children. From 2 Sam. 3:2-5, we know that David had a multitude of wives. The problems seen in this Chapter can be traced back to David’s polygamy in that Amnon & Absalom were from different wives of David, as were Amnon and Tamar, all well before his sin with and marriage to Bathsheba. David’s unbridled lust led him into his sin with Bathsheba, and the murder of her husband Uriah, and no doubt his sons were influenced by the sinful acts of their father. From Ex. 20:5 and Num. 14:18, we know that that the sins of fathers can be visited upon their children for several generations. None of this excuses or justifies the sin of Amnon, for which he is personally responsible, but it helps explain how he got to the point of doing what he did.
So, what can set us free from the power of lust and temptation, and this terrible cycle of sin?
The answer is that nothing can, except the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. Jeremiah told of a day when God would make a new covenant with His people, and would put His law within them and write it on their hearts (Jer. 31:31-34), and that prophecy was fulfilled with the coming of the new covenant in the blood of Jesus, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that is given to all who come to God by faith in the power of the blood of Jesus to save them from their sins. In Rom. 6, we see that as believers in Jesus Christ, we now can choose to be slaves of righteousness, instead of slaves to sin. And, in Gal. 5:16 we are told that if we walk by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Along with the forgiveness of sins that Jesus purchased for us on the cross, comes the power to say no to sin. In John 8:11, when Jesus forgave the woman caught in adultery, He also told her to go and sin no more. He would not have told her that unless He had also given her the power to do it.
While the events of 2 Sam. 13 are a sad reminder of the power and devastation of sin, there is hope in Jesus. In Him, we have died to our old ways. In Him, we are more than conquerors, for He came to give us victory over sin, death, and Satan. And in Him, the righteous requirement of the Law can be fulfilled in us. As we grow in our understanding of who Jesus is and what He has done for us, our love of Him will outgrow and outweigh our love of sin to the point where we will hate it and choose to stand against it. Praise be to God for this glorious truth!