Ordinary Time Week 10

Psalm: Psalm 51:1-12 or Psalm 78:23-29 
Old Testament: 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
  or Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15 
Gospel: John 6:24-35 
Epistle: Ephesians 4:1-16

***Editor's (me) note: I misread the 2 Samuel passage, so I was working with 2 Samuel ch. 13. So you get a bonus reading and post about a passage the Lectionary leaves out. Congratulations!***

Another week has come and gone, and I cannot believe we are already into the second week of August. The summer is going by quick! Of course all the stores are full of back-to-school sales and we're about to get into the swing of all the school activities.

But the Church Calendar doesn't really focus on things like going back to school or the start of the English Premier League this weekend, but we do have some interesting passages from scripture nonetheless. I want to focus on the reading from 2 Samuel because it presents to me a pretty clear picture of what happens when humanity abandons God and his decrees. To set the scene for what happens with Amnon and Tamar we have to back into David's story and a particular command that the Lord gave the Israelites. When Amnon's birth is announced in 2 Sam 3:2, along with five other brothers, the text says that each son was born of a different mother. And apparently these six sons and six wives was just the start because in 2 Sam 5 it says, "Meanwhile David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron." (13)

This is significant because David is only the second king every to reign over Israel and he is already breaking one of the big commands God gave to Israel concerning their kings. In Deut. 17 the Lord says, "you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses...He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away." (15, 17) Last week our reading from 2 Sam was the story of David and Bathsheba, which we weren't able to discuss, yet we all know that that indecent was one of the great moral failures of David's life and was a pivotal moment in his relationship with the Lord. But I wonder if David only fell into sin with Bathsheba because he had already turned his back on this basic commandment from the Lord. David lusted for Bathsheba because he knew he could have any women he wanted as either his wife or concubine. When he found a beautiful women who was already married, he acted like a petulant child and decided he would have her anyway. Had he followed the Lord's commandment perhaps his lust would have never taken flight and he would have been satisfied with just one wife. Of course we will never know the answer to this, but it is interesting to note how David had already set his family up for hardship and conflict when he broke one of the Lords commandments.

This background leads us to the story of Amnon and Tamar. It is out of the family structure David has in place that most of his hardships later in life come from. For example, a few chapters later his son Absalom will rebel and try to over through his father's reign. But before that conflict, which plays out on the national stage, there is this small family matter of Amnon and his half-sister Tamar. Amnon was the heir apparent to David as the eldest son and he probably got what ever he wanted in the kings household. And like his father he wanted a woman he couldn't have. And so, like father like son, he concocted a way to get what he wants.

Although Tamar and Amnon had different mothers, this type of relationship was forbidden under the covenant. (Deut. 27:22) But again like David, Amnon disregarded the Lords command to pursue his desire for a woman. Amnon deceived and raped Tamar and although before he says he "loves" Tamar as soon as the act occurs, he immediately "hates" her. The act leftTamar in shame to live in her brother Absalom's house. She is basically stuck and damned to live there for the rest of her life since no man would marry her, and this story is the last we hear about Tamar.

In the aftermath of the rape, David refused to punish Amnon. Perhaps out of love for Amnon, or because he was the heir apparent, but maybe also because he sees himself at least in part in his son's actions. Because David refuses to punish Amnon, Absalom takes matters into his own hands and two years later he avenged his sisters death by killing Amnon. And as I said earlier, Absalom will soon lead a rebellion against his father. So Absalom killed a half-brother who raped his sister, and later in life leads a rebellion against his father. Not someone we would want to hold up as a model human.

So we can see that the life of David and his immediate progeny paint a pretty bleak picture of what humanity is capable of outside a relationship with the Lord. This family is not only a part of the People of God, this is the family that is supposed to rule the people, and look at what they get into! Salvation and holiness can truly only come from a life following the Lord. David's actions lead to some pretty rough times in his life and he and the people of Israel have to deal with the consequences for years to come. But the amazing thing is that God is still able to work. David repents and his son Salomon is able to rule the kingdom after David. From his greatest sin, comes the lineage that the Lord uses to continue the covenant with David. God could have used any son of David, but he chooses the son from Bathsheba. That is where our hope comes from I think in the midst of the davidic story. God is able to still use us in the midst of our sin and brokenness. David, in repentance, is still able to be used by God. Despite David's sin, and the ongoing effects of that sin, God is still able to work in powerful ways in his life and descendents. This is good news because each one of us has sinned as well. Praise be to God that he is still able to use us for his glory!

Let us be instruments in God's hands and as Paul wrote in Eph. 4, let us"walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which [we] have been called."

Grace and Peace.