May
20
Written by:
Henrik
5/20/2010 7:00 AM
by Steve Pelton
Absalom really makes you wonder. What was going on in that man’s head? It’s not surprising, I suppose, to hear of royalty acting a bit oddly. History has plenty of examples of kings and queens and princes and princesses behaving badly. Maybe it’s the price of privilege. And privilege is something that Absalom probably had in abundance. But it’s more than just that. He is loyal to his sister, to the point of violently avenging her. (He even names his daughter after her.) He alienates his family by putting his brothers in harm’s way, and by killing Amnon. He incurs the wrath of his father, King David, even though David laments Absalom’s banishment. And today we read of how Absalom went to very extreme measures simply for the chance to see his father face to face again. His willingness to torch Joab’s field reveals a man of deep passion, willing to do almost anything to get his way. The act seems selfish, impulsive, but one wonders about his tortured soul too, and how he longed to see a father who longed to see him as well.
Enter Joab on the scene, clearly a frustrated landowner (to say the least). Amidst hot tempers and big personalities, Joab is able to put together a meeting where healing takes place. And I wonder if this is God’s subtlety at work here. It’s not fire from the sky, it’s not an earthquake or the seas parting or a burning bush. But in the intricacies of human interaction, God is present, doing himself what we alone could not do. Think about the big personalities of Absalom and his father. And think about how, for a least a few years, these personalities kept getting in the way of reuniting a fractured family. Each man wanted to reunite, but left on their own, it became impossible. And such a powerful and important relationship—that of father and son, and king and prince—is healed by God, employing Joab. So often we expect this huge miracle, God suspending the rules of nature to make himself known. But what we see time and time again is a God of great miracles and subtleties. If I were to write this story, I probably wouldn’t have included Joab, the frustrated landowner. It would have been a grand reunification, full of pomp and circumstance and national rejoicing. And fortunately for us all, I didn’t write it, and we are treated to God working in ways that we wouldn’t expect. As it is in 2 Samuel 14, so too is it often in our own lives. God works, and surprises us along the way.
A fellow traveler,
Steve
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