(Posted on behalf of John Lanuza, guest writer)
A Son's Disobedience, A Father's Love
I think I read about Absalom's disobedience when I was a teenager. I could not understand for the life of me how David could mourn the death of someone who had been so ungrateful to him, someone who had betrayed him and usurped his throne, after having forgiven him the crime he'd committed against Ammon. Today, I am a father, and I realize how the pain my children may suffer will hurt me more than anything they might do to me. Is this the way with God as well? His greatest sadness, perhaps, not so much the sin we commit, but the consequences and the pain we suffer because we choose to part ways with Him?
I look at Absalom and David, and wonder if they could be any more different. While both were apparently good looking men, David appears not to have let it go to his head, while Absalom seemed to take pride in it...a great irony then, that the exalted head of hair appears to have contributed directly to his death. I look at Absalom, and his life seems to have been lived on his own terms, by his own rules, governed by his own wants and needs. He killed Ammon because he was angry at what Ammon had done to Tamar - not because God had ordered him to avenge Tamar's rape. He curried the favor of the Israelites by offering himself as a pleasing advocate to the king...the Israelites then took him as king. And he then slept with David's concubines, to assert his authority, his dominance over his father. None of these actions were for the Lord, all of them were for himself, for his gratification, for his glory.
David was the complete opposite. He retreated when he could have advanced. He thought of others when others would have thought of themselves. He trusted in God when others would have concluded God had abandoned them. And he continued to love his son and seek his safety, even when his son had usurped his throne and was threatening his life. David did nothing for himself, nothing for his glory or gratification...all he did, he did because God commanded. Everything David did reflected how Jesus would answer the expert in the law, who asked Him "Teacher...what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus replied "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." (Lk 10:27). David appears to have taken it even further, loving others - Absalom, in this instance - more than himself, putting Absalom's welfare before his own.
And God rewarded him. The Lord confounded Absalom, who then refused Ahithophel's good advice. And David's army met Absalom's much greater army, and defeated it. And Absalom, and the threat he posed, not so much to David, but to God's plans, was killed.
We have a choice, one we face every day, every moment. Do we approach each moment, each decision, each action of our lives like Absalom, perhaps subconsciously seeking our own glory, and finding ways to justify our own wishes? Or do we approach these moments like David, constantly seeking God's will for us, and waiting patiently till His plans are clear? Do we act like Absalom, whose thoughts were first for himself, or do we act like David, who constantly seemed to be thinking of others?
Perhaps a few questions I need to ask myself:
1. When was the last time I struggled to wait patiently on the Lord, but did so anyway? And what was the outcome?
2. How should I start my day so that, when faced with choices, I am predisposed to lifting them up rather than deciding them on the spot?
3. How consistent have I been about giving thanks to God when he answers my prayers?
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