Today is Easter 2009 - HE IS RISEN!
Absalom's Rebellion - 2 Samuel 12:24-25, 5:13-16; 1 Chronicles 3:4-9, 14:3-7; 2 Samuel 13:1-39; 14:1-24
In Hebrew, pansies are called "amnon vetamar." Because they are named for the biblical characters Amnon and Tamar. Do you really want to name a flower after a a dysfunctional sibling relationship that results in rape? Someone needs to rethink this.
Amnon and Tamar - yet another Not-Ready-for-the-Flannel-Board story. I think I'm going to have to design a special icon to designate them. There are a lot of them in the Bible. What does that say? And what does it say that we tend not to spend time with them? Do they embarrass us? Do we think ourselves above them? Do they test our faith?
The story of Amnon and Tamar speaks to our notion of what love is, then and now. Amnon loves his half sister Tamar. Thankfully one of his cousins has a plan for luring her to Amnons bed. Thanks, cuz. What kind of family is this?
So Amnon takes his cousin Jonadab's advice and tricks Tamar into being alone with him in his bedroom. Amnon then attempts to force Tamar to have sex. The text suggests she would have agreed to marry him to avoid this evil, but Amnon must have her now. And he rapes her.
Then the writer of 2 Samuel pens a curious passage:
"Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her." 2 Sam. 13:15
How can love so quickly turn to hate? But, in fact, Amnon never loved her. His love was for himself. True love would have sought his sister's best interest and not his own. Once the passion of the moment is over realty sets in. Shame and guilt convict Amnon. He doesn't hate himself for what he's done, he hates Tamar.
David's son didn't love Tamar any more than David truly loved Bathsheba. David didn't think of Bathsheba's best interest. Can you imagine how the people, how David's other wives, how his attendants whispered about David and Bathsheba's marriage and her previous husband's murder. Oh, it was talked about...Amnon surely heard. And now, the sins of the father visit the son. And not just one son...Absalom will also follow in his father's footsteps.
My post last year on this date.
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