To Encourage You

2 Samuel 18:33 “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom!  Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

In the tragic words above, we see the deepest heart of a father for his son.  These words were spoken by King David upon learning that his son Absalom had been slain.  Surely David had seen this coming for a long time, for Absalom had lived a life of rebellion both against his own father as well as his father’s Lord. It was a dead end, this rebellion of Absalom.  

Interestingly, the name Absalom means “my father is peace.”  What a misnomer for this son who lived a life of war against the father who loved him.  David loved Absalom in spite of so much.  First, Absalom had murdered Amnon, his own half-brother and one of David’s other sons. That set off a life of exile for Absalom that led eventually to his efforts to usurp his father’s throne.  Yet, David’s heart ached for him. As Absalom’s rebellion led to full-blown war, David asked his commanders to “deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.”  But what did they do?  Absalom’s head became stuck in a tree as the mule he was riding ran under it.  As Absalom hung there helplessly, David’s commander Joab thrust him through with a spear.  It was a tragic end, but one that Absalom had brought upon himself in his sin.  

In this story we see a shadow of the heart of God, for wasn’t one of David’s names, “a man after God’s own heart”?  Jesus demonstrated this as he wept over Jerusalem, and voiced the lament, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:41-44). But here we see that although David was a man after God’s own heart, he still came far short of the incredible love of God.  You see, while David cried out about Absalom, “Would that I had died instead of you,” Jesus actually DID die in the place of those who rebelled against Him. As Absalom hung on a tree and was pierced through and cursed, Jesus was also hung on a tree and “was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).  

Each and every one of us was once just as rebellious against the God Who created us as Absalom was against his father.  The Bible tells us that “the mind that is set on the flesh (as each and every one of us once was) is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law” (Romans 8:7). We are born rebels, hostile to God, with a desire to rule our own lives rather than bow at the throne of the King of kings. And what did God do in response? Incredibly “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  It was “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

So, what is your response to all this?  What is your response to this King “who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all”? (Romans 8:32).  Hopefully it will not be to go on in your rebellion. Hopefully it will not be to continue to rebel against this God who gave His own Son to die for us, cursed to hang on a tree so that we would not have to bear that curse ourselves.  For you see, even as Jesus hung there on the cross, He cried out from His heart, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).  He gave His very life so that we could become His sons and daughters. That’s the Father’s heart of this great King.