Wednesday, February 7, 2018

The word “Love” is so confusing




 2 Samuel 13:1-20

Have you been infatuated with someone of the opposite sex, and did you confuse those emotions with love?  If so you are going to have a better understanding of the first 20 verses of chapter 13.

The word “Love” is so confusing in our culture, we love coffee, God, and people using the same words, and it does stop with coffee, we love everything.  It has taken years for me to drop the “Love” word and exchange it for like.  I do like coffee, and football, with the exclusion of the NFL, and I do love God, my wife, and family.

With that backdrop shall we begin; Now Absalom, David's son, had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar, and after a time Amnon, David's son loved her.  Amnon was so tormented that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible for Amnon to do anything to her.”  Now they both had David as a dad, but Tamar’s mother was Maacah, and Amnon had Ahinoam as his mother.  It seems that both Absalom and Tamar were both beautiful and Amnon was eaten up by Tamar’s beauty and yet he could not touch her.

How often do you check out what you call “love” by the authority of Love?  It is found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7,  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [a] it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endure all things.”


We can bet the farm on this truth, Amnon was in lust but not even close to love, and many of us need to have a better understanding of the word love.  The big problem Amnon had is the same one you and I have, it is called living under the authority of God’s word.  And the book of Leviticus lays out the Laws of God in this area in chapter 18:11, “You are not to have sexual intercourse with your father’s wife’s daughter, who is adopted by your father; she is your sister.”  Lust is an active driver, and there will always be someone to tell you how to get what you want, and for Amnon, it was David’s brother Shimeah, son of Jonadab.


Now the plan was all based on lies and deception so what could go wrong, just about everything?  The idea was to act like you’re sick and ask your dad to send your sister to your chamber to prepare a meal for him, and David did so.  Now to be alone with her, he orders all the help out of the room and asks his sister to bring the food to his bed and feed him, but it was not the food he wanted.  So he grabbed his sister and raped her, and it all backfired on him for she was damaged, and he hated her.   He had her thrown out and she went home and her brother Absalom had to come up with a way to pay back his half-brother for this act of destroying his sister’s life. 


From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice

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