Fake News

2 Samuel 13:37-39 – 14:1-24

“But Absalom fled and went to Talmai the son of Ammihud, king of Geshur. And David mourned for his son day after day. So Absalom fled and went to Geshur, and was there three years. And the spirit of the king longed to go out to Absalom because he was comforted about Amnon since he was dead.”

Are you willing to sit and ponder on the loss of a son, not from an accident, no his death was planned out by his half-brother?  It is all about getting even for the pain you caused my sister.  A note is needed here; bad things happen to people we love.  God will give them the grace to handle it, but when you or I take on a wrong to others, God does not extend grace to us, but gives us a spirit of forgiveness if we ask.  Or we can choose to be like Absalom and let it fester and make us angry.

This is where Absalom’s murder of his brother Amnon has taken him; he is living with his maternal grandfather Talmai, the ruler of Geshur.  That may not sound all that bad, but any day David could request that Talmai hand him over and he would have had to do so, but we do know Absalom lived there for three years.

Moving into chapter fourteen, give thought to your best friend, a person you are very close to, who has longed to see a child but just could not allow them back home, given what they had done.  Joab and David had a lot of history, they knew each other well, and Joab knew how much David yearned for his son. 

We read and hear a lot about fake news and yet it’s not anything new.  Joab plans a story of a widow who had lost her husband and her two sons began to fight out in the field and one killed the other and now the clan wanted her to turn over the other son so they could put him to death for murdering his brother.  They did not only want her only son’s life, but it would put the mother without an heir.  Let’s look at the story in verse 7, “Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant and said, ‘Hand over the one who killed his brother so we may put him to death for the life of the brother he murdered. We will destroy the heir!’ They would extinguish my one remaining ember by not preserving my husband’s name or posterity on earth.”

 In verses 8-14, it becomes clear that this was all a set-up; “The king told the woman, “Go home. I will issue a command on your behalf. ”Then the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord the king, may any blame be on me and my father’s house, and may the king and his throne be innocent.”

“Whoever speaks to you,” the king said, “bring him to me. He will not trouble you again!”

She replied, “Please, may the king invoke the Lord your God, so that the avenger of blood will not increase the loss, and they will not eliminate my son!”

“As the Lord lives,” he vowed, “not a hair of your son will fall to the ground.”

Then the woman said, “Please, may your servant speak a word to my lord the king?”

“Speak,” he replied.

The woman asked, “Why have you devised something similar against the people of God? When the king spoke as he did about this matter, he has pronounced his own guilt. The king has not brought back his own banished one. We will certainly die and be like water poured out on the ground, which can’t be recovered. But God would not take away a life; He would devise plans so that the one banished from Him does not remain banished.

Yes, it was fake news, but it worked, and the King asked the woman if Joab had put her up to that and she answered yes.  So the King called in Joab and ordered him to get Absalom and bring him home, but to make sure he understood he was not allowed in the King's presence.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice