Inspiration

Incest. Deceit. One daughter raped. One son dead. Another with blood on his hands. A palace in turmoil.

Again it was time for David to step up. Display his Goliath-killing courage, Saul-pardoning mercy, Brook-Besor leadership. David’s family needed to see the best of David. But they saw none of David. He didn’t intervene or respond. He wept. But wept in solitude.

Absalom interpreted the silence as anger and fled Jerusalem to hide in his grandfather’s house. David did not attempt to see his son. For three years they lived in two separate cities. Absalom returned to Jerusalem, but David still refused to see him. Absalom married and had four children. “Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem but did not see the king’s face” (2 Samuel 14:28).

Such shunning could not have been easy. Jerusalem was a small town. Avoiding Absalom demanded daily plotting and spying. But David succeeded in neglecting his son.

More accurately, he neglected all his children. A passage from later in his life exposes his parenting philosophy. One of his sons, Adonijah, staged a coup. He assembled chariots and horsemen and personal bodyguards to take the throne. Did David object? Are you kidding? “His father had not rebuked him at any time by saying, ‘Why have you done so?’” (1 Kings 1:6). . . .

When it came to his family, David blew it. (From Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado)

Taken from The Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible