I wanted to follow up on the sermon that I gave on Psalm 63 where I shared, what is likely, the backstory of 2 Samuel 14-18, by talking about the reality of consequences and how to think about scripture and God when no one in the story is in the right, save Tamar. (I’ll get to her after I clear some things up about the men in this story)
The story goes that Amnon lusted after his half-sister, Tamar, the sister of Absalom. Amnon overpowers her and sexualliy assaults her and then banishes her from his sight. This is wrong on so many levels and Amnon should have been punished severely for this. In fact, Leviticus 18:9 speaks of this very act as an abomination:
"Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere."
Leviticus 18:9
The punishment for such acts, as described in Leviticus, is found in verse 29:
"Everyone who does any of these detestable things - such persons must be cut off from their people."
Leviticus 18:29
So according to the Torah, Amnon should have been ostracized from his family and been banished from the Israelite community. But he wasn’t. Why? Because King David chose inaction. David chose his firstborn son over his daughter. This is a huge problem. This is the second wrong in the story.
Tamar’s older brother, and David’s third son, Absalom, decides to take matters of revenge into his own hands two years later. He plots to kill his half-brother Amnon and has a group of friends do it for him. Absalom believes he is in the right in exacting revenge here, but he is not. He is breaking the levitical law as well by not following the levitical law. He knows this to be true, and this is why he flees for 3 years from the presence of David, his father. This act of revenge is the third wrong in the story.
After 3 years, David welcomes Absalom back home, but they do not work anything out. David will not speak to Absalom face to face because of this. Enter the woman from Tekoa and Joab, the general of David’s army. The woman from Tekoa disguises herself as a beggar and makes up a story about her two sons and that one has killed the other and is not welcomed home… David commands her to welcome her other son home, to which she turns the tables on him and shows David that he is in the wrong for not working things out with his son, Absalom. She was sent to confront David by his own General, Joab. David acknowledges his error, and welcomes Absalom and they work out what is between them… sort of.
Everything seems well and good until Absalom decides to concoct a scheme to overtake David’s throne. This is a major wrong… because he is raising his hand against God’s anointed. He is doing what David refused to do with Saul, his predecessor. David had many opportunities to overthrow Saul’s kingship, yet he did not because it would be raising his hand against God’s anointed. Absalom, however, commits this wrong, and thus the rest of the story plays out.
So how are we to take Psalm 63 as David’s plea for God’s presence when he has been just as culpable in getting himself into this situation? 3 things: 1) this whole situation is a family disaster… no one is innocent in this story, save Tamar (like I said, I will get to her tragic story in a second), 2) David and Absalom seemingly worked out whatever happened between them in the murder of Amnon (at least from David’s perspective, because the coup seemed like a complete blindside) and it seems as if the woman of Tekoa helped David realize his guilt in the situation, just as the prophet Nathan did only a few chapters earlier with the sin of adultery with Bathsheba (David seems like he is on a roll of making terrible decisions regarding women in these chapters), and 3) David, although not a perfect or sin-free character, was still God’s anointed king over his people, Israel… and he was not rejected by God. Therefore, to raise one’s hand against God’s anointed was treason against God from within the Israelite people. So David, although he is not fully in the right and clear of all of this, may feel he has righted all of the wrongs that have happened, so he cries out for the presence of God and for God to step in and deliver him from this.
Whether a situation has fallen on us, or we have made choices that bring about consequences, it does not diminish the fact that God’s presence is near and can hold us through these situations. Sometimes the presence of God is there to correct us and discipline us… other times it is there to carry us.
Now, let’s talk about Tamar. Tamar’s story is one of tragedy. She is the victim of familial sexual assault and rape, and never gets any justice in the whole story, outside of her oppressor and assaulter being killed by her brother. Amnon should have received Israelite judicial punishment. And, as the law goes, she should have been compensated for (the bride price paid) or have been wed by a redeemer… but instead, she is forced to live as a desolate (never marrying and never having children) woman the rest of her life. The only one in this whole story who did nothing wrong, gets the worst treatment of all… and never gets any kind of justice. Welcome to the misogyny of the Biblical world. I, for one, am glad that we live in a day and age where these kinds of things can be called out for the horrific sin that they are, and that women’s stories can be told and believed and we can exact justice for these kinds of evil. May we never forget the story of Tamar, and may we strive to do better for the girls and women of our world.
Sam Burke 
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