What God Desires

1 Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king’s heart longed for Absalom. 2 So Joab sent someone to Tekoa and had a wise woman brought from there. He said to her, “Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes, and don’t use any cosmetic lotions. Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead. 3 Then go to the king and speak these words to him.” And Joab put the words in her mouth. 4 When the woman from Tekoa wentto the king, she fell with her face to the ground to pay him honor, and she said, “Help me, Your Majesty!” 5 The king asked her, “What is troubling you?” She said, “I am a widow; my husband is dead. 6 I your servant had two sons. They got into a fight with each other in the field, and no one was there to separate them. One struck the other and killed him. 7 Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant; they say, ‘Hand over the one who struck his brother down, so that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed; then we will get rid of the heir as well.’ They would put out the only burning coal I have left, leaving my husband neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth.” 8 The king said to the woman, “Go home, and I will issue an order in your behalf.” 9 But the woman from Tekoa said to him, “Let my lord the king pardon me and my family, and let the king and his throne be without guilt.” 10 The king replied, “If anyone says anything to you, bring them to me, and they will not bother you again.” 11 She said, “Then let the king invoke the LORD his God to prevent the avenger of blood from adding to the destruction, so that my son will not be destroyed.” “As surely as the LORD lives,” he said, “not one hair of your son’s head will fall to the ground.” 12 Then the woman said, “Let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.” “Speak,” he replied. 13 The woman said, “Why then have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself, for the king has not brought back his banished son? 14 Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.

–2 Samuel 14.1-13 (NIV)

We get a wonderful glimpse at the heart of God in today’s lesson, with the punchline coming at the end of the passage. First, some background. This story falls in the greater context of the aftermath of David’s disastrous affair with Bathsheba. Not only was David guilty of adultery, he also had blood on his hands when he had Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, killed so that David could avoid the death penalty that came with the conviction of adultery. God forgave David because David repented, but David was living with the consequences of his behavior and his household would never again be the same. David’s second son, Absalom, had killed David’s first son and Crown Prince, Amnon, in revenge for Amnon raping his half-sister (who was Absalom’s sister), Tamar. Now Absalom had fled Jerusalem to avoid being killed for his own murderous act and this threatened the stability of the newly formed kingdom of Israel (see 2 Samuel 11-13 for all the lurid details; it is simply heartbreaking to read).

This brings us to today’s passage and we are reminded in a powerful way of all that can go wrong (and has) with the human heart. And things have not changed much in the last 1100 years or so, have they? Take away the historical context and its accompanying names and language in the story above and you could find stories like this in today’s tabloids and news media. The human condition has not improved much, much as we might like to fool ourselves into thinking otherwise. We may have gotten more sophisticated in our denial and language, and certainly we have advanced technologically, but the human condition essentially remains the same and not even our vaunted scientific advancements have been able to fix that.

But right when we are about to get discouraged we read the last verse of today’s lesson. The wise woman had technically distorted the truth about bloodshed (see Genesis 9.6) but she got right to the heart of the matter by focusing on the mercy of God. We would be wise to do likewise. Make no mistake. God will not be mocked nor will his justice be denied. God is wholly good and cannot countenance evil in his Presence. But as I have said repeatedly here, God created us for relationship with him, not for destruction, and that is why he became human, suffered and died on a cross so that he could bear the just punishment for our sins himself, thereby giving us our only hope and chance to live with him forever.

Human sin brings about alienation, both with God and each other. You can’t find a better example of this than in today’s story and the sad aftermath of David’s affair. Yes, God remained faithful to David and his dynasty despite their egregious sins. But God did that because God is God and God is faithful, not because of David. True, David remained a man after God’s heart, presumably because he did not follow other gods despite the impressive catalog of his other shortcomings, and we can take heart in that as well. But the consequences of David’s sin remained.

And where there is alienation from God there is perforce exile, and where there is exile from God there is perforce death because God is the only Source and Author of life. Yet it is to the glory of God that he has intervened on our behalf to rescue us if we only have the good sense to accept his offer to put our whole hope and trust in Jesus Christ so that he can change us and make us into his own image so that we can become truly human, the way God created us to be.

By itself, the human condition is a hopeless one and none of us much care to think about that. But that’s like whistling through the graveyard. Our denial doesn’t change anything! But take heart and hope because that is not the end of the story as the wise woman in today’s lesson reminds us and as the cross of Christ bears powerful affirmation and testimony. The cross is God’s symbol of justice and speaks volumes about God’s great love and intentions for us.

If you have not already done so, do yourself a favor and say yes to God’s merciful offer to you in Jesus so that you can begin to really live and be the person you were created to be. It make get hard for you at times but don’t let your difficult times distract you so that you lose sight of the wondrous love and mercy God has for you. After all, a God who can forgive David and call him a man after God’s own heart has the capacity to forgive even the worst of us. That is a God worth loving and obeying!