To Encourage You

2 Samuel 13:3 “Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David’s brother. And Jonadab was a very crafty man.”

2 Samuel 13:19 “And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe that she wore. And she laid her hand on her head and went away, crying aloud as she went.”

Have you ever read the accounts of people who murder someone and those who had had a relationship with the murderer sometime in the past are completely shocked?  They say things like “He was quiet,” “He was a nice guy, well-liked in school,” or something similar.  It all points to the way that sin so often works.  It begins as a subtle temptation, a little thing, something very few might know anything about, for it begins “in the dark.”  The consequences, however, are anything but subtle, often with far-reaching and devastating consequences. The Bible is full of warnings about this, warnings to which God would have us pay heed. 

One such example is in the story of Amnon and Tamar in 2 Samuel 13.  We are told that Amnon loved Tamar, but it was an ungodly “love” for it consisted of sexual lust of a brother for a sister.  Although most people weren’t likely aware of this, he had a friend who knew. His name was Jonadab.  We are told that “Jonadab was a very crafty man.” Some versions of the Bible translate the Hebrew word translated here as “crafty” as “subtle.”  This “friend” was nothing more than a tool of Satan. Satan, who was in no way Amnon’s friend, is very subtle in his dealings with us. It’s something we learn in the opening chapters of the Bible, as he very subtly tempted the first woman, Eve (Genesis 3:1). 

It’s rarely obvious at first glance as to what Satan is about.  He will often use very devious people to carry out his goals.  And so Jonadab, one such person, suggested a plot to Amnon to lure his sister into his bedroom by pretending that he was sick.  King David, who was the father of both Amnon and Tamar, wouldn’t have dreamed that Amnon would do what he did to Tamar, as he granted Amnon’s request to send Tamar to him with some food to care for him in his “illness.” Nor did Tamar have any idea that Amnon would rape her as she went to him in response to his request.  It was all so innocent looking.  Amnon was such a nice guy.  But then he wickedly violated his sister, and the aftermath was anything but subtle and discreet. 

In the second passage above we see Tamar tearing her robes in a public sign of great anguish and crying aloud for all the world to hear and see.  Later, Absalom, Tamar’s full brother and Amnon’s half-brother, murdered Amnon in a similarly devious plot.  It was a plot that simmered beneath the surface for two full years, a hatred hid from the world as it smoldered in the dark. But when his sin came to fruition, it left a devastating wake.  Like Tamar, we see David, his other sons, and his servants lifting up their voices in bitter weeping (2 Samuel 13:36). 

God would have us to know from these accounts that the sin that often starts so subtly has consequences that are anything but subtle in the end.  This is reinforced for us in the New Testament in the following words: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15).  It all begins so subtly in the dark, but its ugly consequences are often exposed suddenly for all the world to see. And so God urges us to not give the devil a foothold in our lives (Ephesians 4:27).  That thing that seems so innocent and “not that big of a deal” in the beginning, can bring devastation to our lives and the lives of others if it’s not nipped in the bud early on.  That’s why God has urged us to “confess (our) sins to one another and pray for one another, that (we) may be healed” (James 5:16).  Confession gets the sin that is at work in the darkness in our lives out in the open and thereby kills its subtle and deadly advance. 

May God keep us from harboring secret sins. for they are things that, if not confessed and forsaken, can bring devastating consequences in the end.