II Samuel 13:38-14:33
Dear RTB’ers,
Joab is looking good. (That won’t always be so…!) Yesterday we saw him bringing David to the fight against Rabbah so that David would get credit for the victory, not himself (II Samuel 12:26-28). And today Joab is all about reconciliation between David and Absalom, first enlisting the woman of Tekoa to fabricate a story, then getting David to bring Absalom to Jerusalem, and then finally urging David to meet with and forgive his son (after Absalom has burned his field!). Admittedly Joab is deceitful in bringing in the woman from Tekoa, but in so doing he is only following Nathan’s example of the two men and one small lamb. So yeah, Joab is looking good.
Not so with Absalom. He has murdered his half-brother, the crown prince Amnon, and escaped to his father-in-law’s house. David brings him to Jerusalem, but does not meet up with him – which angers Absalom enough to burn Joab’s field and demand an audience with his father, knowing full well that he will either receive forgiveness or a death sentence: Now therefore let me go into the presence of the king, and if there is guilt in me, let him put me to death. (v. 14:32b) Absalom sees his murder of Amnon as revenge, setting aside the Law’s mandate that revenge belongs to the Lord. (Deuteronomy 32:35, Psalm 94:1) So in the end we see reconciliation between father and son, but no mention of either repentance or forgiveness: So he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom. (v. 14:33b) And they lived happily ever after…??
Blessings!