The Burden of Compromise (2 Samuel #19)

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Text: 2 Samuel 14

Joab is David’s nephew and has been Israel’s chief military leader in David’s cabinet. Joab is a bloodthirsty man. He is in love with violence. In Joab’s mind, there is no problem that can’t be solved with a sword. Joab sees that Absalom will be the likely successor to David. But at this time Absalom is at odds with his dad after killing the man who raped his sister, Amnon, who was Absalom’s half-brother.

So Joab sees this apparent opportunity to play mediator and keep himself in power. Joab hires this actress to pretend she has this complicated case of murder in her family. He gives her a little story to tell David. This hired actress tells the story that she has two sons and one of them killed the other. Now, everyone wants to kill the other son and destroy the heir to the inheritance. The story she tells is meant to indict David and get him to bring Absalom back to Jerusalem on good terms. The key is found in verses 13-14.

If you were a detective in law enforcement interrogating her, her story has so many holes in it and unanswered questions that it just doesn’t ring true. I’m going to pick up the story in verse 19. David understands this whole charade has been put on by Joab.

Ignored responsibility (vss 1-3)

David has tried to avoid dealing with Absalom and it’s opened the door to compromise. David ignores his responsibility because it’s his family.
When you look at your family, what is it that you’re compromising on because it might hurt their feelings? What godliness are you avoiding because you don’t want your kids to miss out?
Maybe the responsibilities aren’t about justice. Maybe you have a responsibility to be kind or love or show some compassion, but you’ve allowed yourself to become cynical and warped about people you should love. (The Lord knows I have.)
The point is that David’s higher calling is going to be drug through the mud because of his feelings for his son. His feelings for his son have caused him to ignore things he doesn’t need to be ignoring.

Sensual wisdom to draw you into error (vss 4-20)

Joab finds a weak spot in David and wants to take advantage of it without hurting his reputation. He hires a wise woman. Now, this wisdom is not godly wisdom, this is more like subtlety and manipulation.
Nathan’s parable was meant to encourage and stir David’s conscience against his own feelings. This subtle woman’s tale is meant to stir David’s feelings against his conscience.
You’re shown stories of loving gay couples who are faithful to each other. And the story is meant to stir your feelings over your conscience and over God’s word. You’re supposed to hear the story and ask, how could it be wrong when it seems so right?
This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

Rebellion doesn’t age well (vss 21-24)

David is not alright with this plan, but feels backed into a corner I suppose. David brings Absolam back to Jerusalem, but will not give him a court date because David doesn’t want to deal with Absolam killing his half-brother.
But trouble doesn’t get better with time. Since no one is dealing with Absolam, he’s going to concoct a plan in his isolation to usurp and take the throne.
Things don’t get better because you ignore them.

Peer pressure to embrace the offense (vss 25-27)

The people love Absolam. They love him for carnal reasons.
This trouble that you’ve brought in becomes popular. Now, instead of dealing with something small, the thing you’ll have to deal with is going to be much bigger.

Trouble is embraced and pardoned (vss 28-33)

Absolam has demonstrated a disregard for other people’s property in order to get his way. Not surprising since he laid in wait for two years with murder in his heart.
Absalom is brought into the court and David issues him a full pardon. But that will not put an end to the Absolam’s mischief. Absolam is pardoned and invited in, but he’s still a trouble-maker.

The burden of compromise is this: You know you should deal with this problem. You know this won’t get any better. You know the longer you don’t deal with it, the bigger it becomes. You carry the false hope that you’ll never have to confront this issue, but you know you will. Maybe it’s not negative, maybe it’s something positive that you’ve rationalized out of your life like goodness and kindness. The point is you’ve compromised and you know it and you know it hurts you and you know it’s not going away.