“Dad Out of Touch” – FBC Morning Light (4/15/2024)

Well, good Monday morning to you. How was your Lord's Day yesterday? Did you get together with God's people and worship the

Lord? I trust you did, and hope you had a good day. Well, today as we begin this new week, we are reading in the book of Samuel, 2

Samuel specifically, in chapter 21, then we jump to 1 Chronicles chapter 20 for a few verses, and then back to 2

Samuel and chapters 13 and 14. Isn't it interesting that not everything in 2

Samuel is written in chronological order? So anyway, well today

I want to focus on this passage in 2 Samuel 13, and as a way of background, remember that the consequence that the

Lord said would come upon David because of his sin with Bathsheba, and the, you know, the proxy murder of Uriah, her husband, was this in chapter 12.

The Lord said, And then in the next verse, the

Lord said, And this adversity eventually is going to come by way of Absalom, but in the meantime, chapter 13 shows another way in which adversity comes to David in his house, and how a sword comes to his house.

And it happens in this account of Amnon, one of David's sons, and Amnon's lust after his half -sister

Tamar. Tamar happens to be the sister, full sister, of Absalom.

And what's striking here in this passage, there's several things, but one of the things that's striking to me in this passage is that the conversation that happens between Amnon and his friend, not a very good one, but his friend,

Jonadab, and the lack of conversation that happens with his father

David, just points up how sometimes a father can be so wrapped up in his own world and his own stuff, his own interests, his own passions or pursuits or whatever, that he is completely out of touch with his children.

Completely out of touch with he wants, that he wants his half -sister

Tamar. And Jonadab comes up with this scheme for him to be able to get her and do with her as he pleases.

Well, so anyway, the thing that I find disconcerting is that Jonadab knows the desire of Amnon's heart, but Amnon will not tell his father.

David is completely oblivious. David is so oblivious, in fact, that when he comes to visit

Amnon, who's sick, and pretending that he's sick, according to the scheme of Jonadab, when

David comes to Amnon, and Amnon says, you know, he feels so bad, you know, would just send

Tamar to come and fix me something to eat, and David is so clueless that he he can't figure out what's going on.

That, you know, it's like, it doesn't seem like it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure something's not quite right here.

Why, I mean, Amnon's...there are cooks in the king's house, household in the palace, and wherever Amnon's living.

I mean, the king, the government official, he has people to do this kind of cooking and stuff.

Why would you ask for your half -sister to come and fix you dinner?

Something's not right here. But David, boom, right over his head. And he goes back home, he tells

Tamar, go fix your brother something to eat. And off she goes, obedient to her father, and then the next thing you know,

Amnon rapes his sister Tamar. How clueless, how clueless

David is. Sends this girl to her brother, he rapes her, and then in disgust for what he's done and for how he's humiliated his sister, he sends her away, you know, despising her.

Now what's also interesting is that David is clueless, but Absalom isn't.

Notice in chapter 13 of 2nd Samuel, after all this is done, Tamar is humiliated, she's kicked out of Amnon's home, and she runs home to her brother's home, and it says in verse 13 that she took off,

I'm sorry not verse 13, chapter 13 verse 20, she goes home to Absalom's house, and Absalom said to her, has

Amnon your brother been with you? Well, how would he figure that out?

How would he know that? Well, Absalom knew the desire of Amnon's heart, and he figured it out right away.

How sad it is and how tragic that David had no clue. On the one hand, this is a consequence for David's own sin, bringing that kind of sin to his household, but on the other hand,

I wonder how much of it is due to the distance that David has placed between himself and his children.

He has multiple wives, and here again brings up the problem of that whole matter of polygamy, it's never presented in a positive light in the

Bible, it always presents problems, and here's an example of it. He has multiple wives, children from these different wives, they're all interacting with one another, but David is aloof from it all.

What a tragic situation. Well, those of us who are fathers, let's take the challenge to do all we can to be better about knowing the hearts of our children.

Yeah, I understand there comes a point in their lives when they're not naturally as open and transparent as maybe they are when they're six or seven, but we can nevertheless spend time with them, invest our energies in them, show them that we care, talk with them, you know, ask them questions about their goals and desires and, you know, what they what they long for in life and so forth, and just keep the lines of communication open.

It can help avoid this kind of blindsidedness in a family.

So Father, I pray, help us to learn from this very sad example in your

Word today. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen. All right, have a good day today,