Sibling Drama

David was blessed with many children, yet because of his many marriages, this made for dysfunction rather than joy; such as the lust that Amnon had for his half-sister Tamar. He schemed with his friend Jonadab to feign sickness and raped her as she was caring for him. Running in shame to her brother Absalom she told him all that had happened. He took her in and cared for her but he also took the spirit of revenge in and nursed it in his heart. Two years later he killed Amnon and fled to Geshur.

In our last episode, we heard how Nathan confronted David for his sin of adultery and murder. God would spare David’s life, but he took the son conceived in sin and promised David there would be acrimony and war in his household. David repented and turned back to God, worshipping Him and drawing near to his source of comfort and assurance. But while God had forgiven the sin, there would still be natural consequences for David’s choices. And today we’ll see how David’s failure creates conflict and drama among his children. It’s a story of the brokenness caused by sin – not only David’s sin with Bathsheba but his choice to marry many wives and disregard God’s design for marriage between one man and one woman.