2 Samuel, Chapter 13 - When Sin Spreads | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom friends and welcome back to the Prophets of Israel daily. This is the book of 2 Samuel chapter 13 brought to you by the Land of Israel network at the landofisrael.com. [music] I'm Ari Abramowitz here in Judea with my beloved friend Jeremy who is on the road bringing the light of Zion to the world. Shalom Jeremy, how's the tour going? >> The tour is going well. It's long. It's a big country. I got three of my kids with me. We are spreading the light of Zion to probably places that haven't had many Jews attend through Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota. We're on our way to Colorado. It's really beautiful to be this representative from Israel in these times and you should know the Prophets of Israel daily are a blessing to people that are just way out in middle America. >> Well, I'm happy to hear that. I envy your mission. I envy the adventure. I envy the journey, but I would rather die a thousand deaths than leave Israel and go to America after the last time I had to take a a sailboat 28 hours with Captain Jack from Cyprus to the Land of Israel cuz I got stuck. Never happening again. Anyways, to the Prophets of Israel. Right, last chapter we lived through one of the most extraordinary moments in the book of Shmuel. Right, David sinned and when Nathan the prophet confronted him, David didn't hide. He didn't make excuses. He did something almost no king in the ancient world or the modern world would ever really dream of doing. He confessed and he repented and Hashem forgave him. If Hollywood were writing that story, that's where the credits would roll. Happily ever after, but the Tanakh isn't Hollywood because in the books of the Prophets, forgiveness, like you said yesterday, I believe it was Jeremy, doesn't erase consequences. And Nathan's final warning that the sword would never depart from David's house is still hanging over the palace like one of those dark storm clouds that just hasn't broken open yet. Right? And today the sword comes home. Today it enters David's own family. This is a hard chapter. It's a hard chapter. There's violence, lust, betrayal, and by the end, murder. There are almost no heroes here. And Jeremy, in that way, it's another example of how real and human this story is. If I had to summarize this whole chapter in one word, the word I would choose is pain. And it's precisely because this chapter is so painful that we can't allow ourselves to read it superficially or to skim it or skip past it. Because redemption never comes from pretending the darkness isn't there. It comes from having the courage to walk straight into that darkness and find the sparks of light within it. So, the chapter opens with a tragedy unfolding almost like it's almost like in slow motion. You see it playing out. David's eldest son, Amnon. Is he the eldest son? He is. David's eldest son, Amnon, becomes consumed with desire for his half-sister, Tamar. Verse two. Vayetzar l'Amnon l'hithallel b'avor Tamar. And Amnon was tormented because of Tamar. Notice that word, l'hithallel. He fell sick because of her. Overwhelmed, distressed. Tormented is a good word. The The text doesn't tell us that Amnon loved her. It tells us he was tormented by her. His desire isn't producing life inside of him. It's producing sickness. Because if you've ever been really in love, you know that real love draws you out of yourself. Lust locks you deeper inside yourself. The Hebrew word for love is ahava, which comes from the root word hav, lahav, which means to give. True love inspires the desire to give to the object of your love. Love is about giving. Lust is about taking. And the moment another person becomes nothing more than an object for satisfying your appetite, destruction is already on the way. >> You know, Ari, I really think that's one of the great lies our culture is still selling people today. Follow your heart, everyone says. But the prophet Yirmiyahu Hanavi, Jeremiah the prophet, warns us a cove halev mikol, the human heart is deceptive above all else. It can talk to you into almost anything. And the Torah guides us, tells us, do not chase every desire, just learn to discipline it, channel it from what is forbidden and destructive into what is permitted and life-giving. And the moment societies societies make a virtue out of satisfying every lust, civilization starts to crumble. And so, freedom was never about doing whatever you want. Freedom is about becoming the kind of person who no longer is ruled by every impulse that ambushes you. That's the freedom the Torah is trying to build inside us. >> Exactly. Exactly. And And like you said, right, Amnon doesn't seek to master the desire. He goes looking for someone who'll help him justify it. And he finds him. Jonadab. One of the most corrupting men in the book of Samuel. And it took me a while to think of a good word to describe him. Corrupting. And what's so ironic is that the text doesn't introduce him as an enemy, it introduces him as a friend. Verse three. U'Amnon re'a, right? Amnon had a friend. Um Jonadab doesn't challenge Amnon, he doesn't try to pull him back to his senses, he simply helps him get what he wants. And that's the whole difference. That's the whole difference. A true friend helps you become who God created you to be. A false friend may tell you what you want to hear, but in the end they just help you become who whoever your appetite is demanding you become, your lowest self. Right? And let's read the rest of the verse because a lot of people miss this. Back to verse three. Jeremy, tell me, did you recognize this? Do you remember this? Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David's brother Shammah. Did you know that? I when I read this that was news to me. I never remembered that. Jonadab it says Jonadab was a very clever clever man. The Tanakh wants us to know exactly who Jonadab is, not some random bad influence from the outside, he's family. He's David's nephew, which means he's Amnon's cousin, Tamar's cousin, and Absalom's cousin. He has access to the royal house, the personalities, the weaknesses, how it all works, and because he's family his counsel comes dressed in trust. Right? He's not an enemy at the gate, he's corruption from inside the house, and he knows how to turn Amnon's desire into a plan. Right? And so the plan unfolds with King David not having any idea what he himself is doing by sending his beautiful beloved daughter Tamar straight into the trap. Thinking her brother is sick, she prepares food for Amnon, and then comes one of the most heartbreaking speeches. Right? When Amnon grabs her, Tamar pleads, verse 12. "No, my brother, do not violate me. Such things are not done in Israel." Let's see what she does there, Jeremy. She reasons with him. She appeals to their family. She's his sister. She appeals to their God, to the dignity of the entire nation. She even offers him another way out, doing everything a human being can do to awaken whatever conscience might still be alive inside of him. But lust has made Amnon deaf. Once desire takes control and becomes an idol, there's no more listening. There's no more reasoning. It only consumes. And he violates her. And then something devastating happens. Right? The very next verse tells us verse 16 Then Amnon hated her with an exceedingly great hatred. A moment ago he claimed he couldn't live without her. Now he can't stand the sight of her in a minute? Why? Obviously, it's because it was never love. Love doesn't evaporate the instant it takes what it wants. Lust does. Sin always promises to fulfill us and then leaves us emptier than how it found us. And it was back to the story. Tamar flees the room in tears. Her brother Absalom takes her into his home. And then comes what may be the saddest verse in the whole chapter. Verse 21. King David heard all of these things and he became very angry. He was furious. And then he did nothing. Nothing at all. This is David. The same David who once ran straight at Goliath, who carried out justice all across the nation of Israel, and now inside his own house he goes silent. >> You know, Ari, you know, why would he do that? Why doesn't he act and bring justice to the unrighteousness in his home? And I think maybe, and I know this is hard to hear, I think maybe it's because he sees too much of himself in Amnon. I mean, if you think about the sequence Amnon saw, Amnon desired, and Amnon took. It's the oldest pattern in the Tanakh. It's exactly what you spoke about just a couple of chapters ago. The same exact pattern of the Garden of Eden. Eve saw the apple. She saw the fruit. She desired, and she he That's the exact pattern David himself followed on a rooftop with Bathsheba. The very sin for which this is the punishment. He saw Bathsheba, he desired her, he took her. The son Amnon is re-enacting the father's sin almost step-for-step. And so maybe that is why David was just paralyzed. David is a man of truth. And so how could he justly punish his son for the very thing he never really confronted it himself. >> That is I think that little idea that you just shared for me is one of the most powerful ideas that we may be done in the whole journey. It's just so insightful. It's so true. Right? And David's moral authority has been compromised. And when the people who are supposed to stand up to evil go quiet, evil doesn't just sit there. It grows, and it grows, and it grows in that silence. Because Absalom doesn't say anything either. Not one word to Amnon. Not friendly, not hostile. And for two full years that hatred burns under the surface like a slow fuse. Two years of sitting at the same family table, passing the bread, and quietly planning a murder. And then, at a feast, it reaches its end. I mean, it's not like you just exploded in rage. There was a plan here. But this is when it it culminates. Absalom kills Amnon. And Nathan's prophecy begins to unfold right before our eyes. The sword has entered David's house, and it will not leave for many chapters to come. >> You know, Ari, I just got to stop here because reading this chapter, I kept circling back to one word we've returned to again and again throughout the book of Shmuel, lev, the heart. And when David was first chosen, God taught the prophet Samuel that human beings judge by what the eye can see, but Hashem looks straight into the heart. What's been the central question of the whole book is what kind of heart makes a king. And now we're watching what happens when that heart stops being cultivated. Amnon's heart is ruled by desire. Avishalom's heart is by revenge. And David, his heart is paralyzed by guilt. And everyone in this chapter is acting, but almost no one is really seeking God and what God's will is in this whole saga. And the further we drift from the presence of Hashem, the more every other hunger comes rushing in to fill the empty space he leaves behind. >> Yeah, that's beautifully said, Jeremy. And I and I really believe that's exactly why this chapter sits right here where it does. Right, chapter 12 was about forgiveness. Chapter 13 is here to remind us that forgiveness isn't magic. Right, sin sends ripples into the world, and sometimes those ripples travel for generations. Every choice we make matters, not only for us, but for our children and the nation they'll one day inherit. And I'll tell you, this feels very real for us out here on the Judean frontier. Feels real real for me, because when you're raising children in this world today, but at least for me out here on these mountains, you become very aware that the choices you make don't stop with you. The way you fight, the way you forgive, the way you hold on to faith when things are hard, your children are watching all of it. And the land itself reminds you that we are not just living for ourselves. These hills carry memory. Avram walked here. David fought here. The prophets dreamed of Israel's return here. And now, after thousands of years, Jewish children are once again running through these hills, learning what it means to build a life rooted in Hashem and in in family, rooted in holiness. So, yes, every choice matters, because our children don't only inherit our homes, they inherit our hearts, our courage or our fear, right? Our faith or or our confusion. And that is why this chapter is really so timeless because David's sin did not end with David. It entered the atmosphere of his home and it began shaping the next generation and the generation after it all the way to ours because for 2,000 years the Jewish people dreamed of standing sovereign in our own land. And now, by the grace of God, we're living it. We have an army, a government, uh and and and real power back in our hands after all these centuries of having none. But, let's remember, my friends, power has never once guaranteed righteousness. If anything, power reveals character. It reveals what's already there. And the very same question that stood over David's kingdom is standing over ours right now. Will our strength be governed by holiness? Will will our justice be brave enough to confront evil even when that evil is standing painfully close to home? Because redemption was never only about coming back to the land. It's about becoming worthy of dwelling in it. And that, my friends, is the work of a lifetime. And if you ask me, that, if anything, is the calling of our generation. And while I could end here, my friends, there's one last thing we need to remember before we say goodbye to chapter 13. Because while this chapter feels overwhelmingly dark, Amnon is not the end of David's story. Neither is Absalom. And neither is failure. Because hidden somewhere else in David's family, under the radar, is another son. One whose name means peace. Solomon. Right? The one through whom the temple will one day be built. The line of redemption has not been extinguished because even when human beings bring chaos into the world, Hashem keeps weaving redemption right through the middle of our story. The same God who stayed faithful to David is faithful to his covenant today. And the same God who has brought Israel home in our own lifetime is still writing the next chapter. Now, friends, if these daily journeys through the prophets are strengthening your faith, deepening your love for Israel, and reconnecting you to the living story of redemption, we'd love for you to become part of this family. Come visit us at the landofisrael.com and help us keep bringing the words of the prophets back to the very mountains where they were first spoken. And if today's chapter moved you, send it to somebody because these difficult chapters are so often the ones that we need the most. Khazak ve'amatz, my friends. Bezrat Hashem, we'll see you tomorrow for chapter 14 as a wise woman from Tekoa steps onto the stage and the long road towards healing [music] and towards even greater turmoil after that continues.