From: stevek
Date: Sun Nov 23 13:42:44 MST 2003
Subject: 2 Samuel 13, 14

These two chapters seem to flow together (often the chapter breaks in the Bible come at odd spots) so I'll hit them in tandem. God has given us some more of the gory details of David's life; more murder, some incestuous rape, deception -lots of fun stuff to mull over for application. Briefly, one of David's sons lures one of his daughters into a situation where she thinks she is ministering to a sick guy. He rapes her, even though she offered to make it all legal by marrying him. He's a skunk, sends her off. Another brother learns of it and ends up getting the first guy drunk and having several other of his brothers kill him. I'm no prophet, but in the array of sin in my life, I don't anticipate any of the above to be issues with which I'm going to have to deal any time soon. So, what's the application God'd have me take away from these chapters? I believe it's in looking at the circumstances that led up to this series of crimes. David had over 300 wives, a couple of hundred concubines and over 50 kids. That's not a direction in which I'm heading, but that situation can easily become a metaphor for the crammed lives we (I) lead which distract us from attention to the essential relational responsibilities we have (pardon the grammatical switch, but I had to drag you all into this somehow, so I just did it by taking grammatical liberty in that sentence.) We can become married (enslaved to - sorry, Ann) several things in our lives; work, TV, self, drugs, hobbies...I could list 300, and then another 200 for the things we're not necessarily married to, but which we too often allow to take our time when we should be attending to other more important things. As we press into our mental toys, we ignore those whom the Lord has put into our lives for building intimacy. David couldn't have effectively been a 'dad' to over 50 kids, no matter how he tried. Sure, he had the material resources to give them all 'stuff,' but that's not building relational equity. In these chapters he clearly shows how disengaged he really is from their lives, fails in his legitimate disciplinary role, and at the end of chapter 14 allows the kid who murdered the rapist son back into his home with no consequences for the act. Earlier, he had found out about the rape, but did nothing (excpet get mad.) Clearly, David is simply allowing himself to be drawn along by circumstances, and has not the integrity to step in and take control as he should have. So, several things to highlight; we cannot build intimatacy with multiple people in our lives. Even Jesus had three whom He chose to take into His private prayer times on a regular basis. A dozen was too many for Him, so it's probably too many for us, too. David had over 50 people he had fathered, but likely none with whom he was a 'dad.' (Maybe Solomon, but we'll get to him later in the book.) When Jesus grew close to Peter, James and John, He did so intentionally, inviting them into relationship, inviting them to share in His sufferings and private trials, as well as inviting them into His times of glory such as at transfiguration. Yet, Jesus rebuked each of them in love when they stepped out of line relationally. Peter, when he suggested that Jesus not go through with the Father's plan involving being killed, and James and John when they lobbied to be the greatest in His kingdom. We get close, close enough to share victories, pain and honesty. But we don't do that with 50 people. Let the Lord lead those intimates into your life, and then cherish them relationally. Next, David was so preoccupied with being king (occupation), flirting around (hobbies - Bathsheeba - how can a guy with 500 options in his camp have a problem with wandering eyes?), waging war (a passion which became an addiction in his life and eventually kept him from being chosen to build God's temple) - David allowed so many other things to infiltrate his consciousness that he effectively stepped away from building relationship with any of his kids. For those of you without kids, the same can hold true for any significant relational 'other' in your life. There's a Christian truism - it's not a religion, but a relationship. I'd like to expand that to 'it's a series of relationships/first with Jesus, then with brothers and sisters with whom He has blessed us for the purpose of sharing life experiences relationally, intimately. What I come away from chapters 13 and 14 of 2 Samuel with is that we need to give focus to those relationships first in our lives, and not let our work/play or whatever take their place. Next, if our relationship with the Lord isn't first, those other relationships will fail to be all of what they otherwise could become. Finally, if we try to spread our intimate relationships too thinly among a large group of people, we will fail in establishing an essential closeness with any of them. Keep 'em tight and focused in your mind and spirit/with the Lord at the top of the heap.

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