King David, his life lessons

Have you ever been #betrayed by someone you loved? Have you ever faced seemingly insurmountable odds? Has it ever seemed as though there was no way out of your particular dilemma?

If so, then you have a good idea of how David felt when he penned the words of Psalm 5. David had made a number of mistakes in his life. He committed many sins that haunted him in his later years. Because of his multiple marriages, he had children who were partially related to each another. But it wasn’t the Brady Bunch. There was a great deal of conflict and problems in his household as a result.

One of David’s sons was named Absalom, whose full sister was Tamar. David had another son named #Amnon, who took advantage of his half-sister Tamar and raped her. Absalom, her full brother, was outraged by what Amnon had done. He also was angry that David hadn’t taken stronger measures to deal with his son.

So #Absalom arranged to have Amnon killed. The result was that Absalom was banished from the kingdom. But after a period of time, Absalom was allowed to return. In the process, however, he turned the hearts of the people away from his father, the king. The chickens were coming home to roost, as the old saying goes.

David was reaping the consequences of what he had sowed many years earlier. After David’s sin of adultery with #Bathsheba, the prophet Nathan told him, “Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own” (2 Samuel 12:10 NIV).

Out of his own household, David was reaping the results of his sin. But that shouldn’t surprise us too much. In reality, David simply was seeing his own behavior reflected in his children. Amnon treated Tamar as David treated Bathsheba. He forced himself upon Tamar sexually, just as David misused his position as king to sexually take advantage of Bathsheba.

And Absalom, in murdering Amnon, was only treating his half-brother the way David treated Uriah in sending him to the front lines with the full intention of having him killed. Then David took Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, to be his wife. Like father, like son.

It’s sad when we see our own character reflected in our children – that is, when they reflect the bad aspects of our character. We want to say to them, “Listen to me! Do as I say, no