We're in 2 Samuel chapter 13. We're not going to read the whole
chapter but we are going to read the first 22 verses and this
is the account of a man called Amnon and his sister called Tamar. And it came to pass after this
that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister whose name
was Tamar, and Amnon the son of David loved her. And Amnon
was so vexed that he fell sick for his sister Tamar, for she
was a virgin, and Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything
to her. But Amnon had a friend whose
name was Jonadab, the son of Shimea, David's brother. And Jonadab was a very subtle
man. And he said unto him, why art
thou, being the king's son, lean from day to day? Wilt thou not
tell me? And Amnon said unto him, I love
Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister. And Jonadab said unto him, Lay
thee down on thy bed, and make thyself sick. And when thy father
cometh to see thee, say unto him, I pray thee, let my sister
Tamar come, and give me meat, and dress the meat in my sight,
that I may see it, and eat it at her hand. So Amnon lay down
and made himself sick. And when the king was come to
see him, Amnon said unto the king, I pray thee, let Tamar
my sister come and make me a couple of cakes in my sight that I may
eat at her hand. Then David sent home to Tamar
saying, go now to thy brother Amnon's house and dress him meat. So Temar went to her brother
Amnon's house, and he was laid down. And she took flour and
kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes. And she took a pan and poured
them out before him. But he refused to eat. And Amnon
said, have out all men from me. And they went out, every man
from him. And Amnon said unto Tamar, Tamar,
bring the meat into the chamber, that I may eat of thine hand.
And Tamar took the cakes which she had made, and brought them
into the chamber of Amnon her brother. And when she had brought
them unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and said unto her,
Come, lie with me, my sister. And she answered him, Nay, my
brother, do not force me, for no such thing ought to be done
in Israel. Do not thou this folly. And I, whither shall I cause
my name to go? And as for thee, thou shalt be
as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak
unto the king, for he will not withhold me from thee. Howbeit
he would not hearken unto her voice, but being stronger than
she, forced her, and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her exceedingly,
so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than
the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her,
Arise, be gone. And she said unto him, There
is no cause. This evil in sending me away
is greater than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would
not hearken unto her. Then he called his servant that
ministered unto him and said, Put now this woman out from me
and bolt the door after her. and she had a garment of divers
colours upon her, for with such robes were the king's daughters
that were virgins apparelled. Then his servant brought her
out, and bolted the door after her. And Tamar put ashes on her
head, and rent her garments of divers colours that was on her,
and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying. And Absalom
her brother said unto her, Hath Amnon thy brother been with thee?
but hold now thy peace, my sister. He is thy brother, regard not
this thing.' So Temar remained desolate in her brother Absalom's
house. But when the king heard of all
these things, he was very wroth. And Absalom spake unto his brother
Amnon, neither good nor bad, for Absalom hated Amnon, because
he had forced his sister Temar. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. This is another hard passage
to read and consider. Sin begets sin and evil brings
its consequences. When a man opens his home to bad things, then the example
that he gives to his family around about him causes them to see
his way of dealing. And it is not surprising if his
children learn his faults. So it seems with the house of
David. God had said that David's house,
David's family would suffer because of David's sin that we've been
thinking about over the past few weeks. God had said concerning
David, he said by the prophet Nathan, I will raise up evil
against thee out of thine own house. and so it begins in this chapter. The characters in this passage
are five. Amnon was David's eldest son
and he was the heir of the kingdom, but he was a wicked man. Jonadab
is Amnon's cousin and he is shrewd and he is devious. and he concocts
a plan to enable Amnon to abuse his sister. Absalom and Tamar are brother
and sister, and they are also David's children to another woman,
a heathen princess, and both of them, interestingly enough,
both Absalom and Tamar, are very attractive in their appearance.
Tamar means palm tree, and she was a very beautiful young woman. And lastly, we find mention in
this passage of David himself. And here, and in other places,
we have cause to question David's wisdom and conduct as a father. and whether, perhaps, his indulgence
of his children did not contribute to the evil that dwelt in his
household. Today's passage tells the story
of Amnon's lust, his lies, and his eventual rape of his sister
Tamar. And Tamar is blameless in this
incident, being first obedient to David's request to go to Amnon's
house because he was sick, and then compliant to cook for Amnon
when she believed him to be unwell and perhaps unable to eat the
normal food that was being prepared in the palace or in his own home. when Amnon tried to entice Temar
to lie with him. Her response was an emphatic
no and her protests were many and her arguments were all sound
and reasonable. She told her brother that nothing
like this should occur in Israel amongst God's people. And she
urged the honour of religion, she urged the reputation of Israel
and the surrounding nations, and she urged the glory of God
against Amnon's impure and indecent proposal, his intentions. But Amnon was determined to have
his way with his sister. She told him that it would ruin
her life and that he would be thought of as a fool throughout
the whole nation, but all to no avail. And in verse 14, we
read together, he would not hearken unto her voice, but being stronger
than she, forced her and lay with her. Then in the next verse, we learn
something else. We learn that having raped his
sister, Amnon immediately hates her. His lust that he had felt
for her turns to loathing and he adds cruelty to his brutality. Unwilling to spare her shame
and the indignity of what had just been done to her, he has
her thrown out onto the street as a harlot. as though she was
to blame for what had happened, and the door was bolted behind
her. Shame on this man twice over. Tamar, as many girls and women
have been, was prey to the brute strength and the evil passion
of a man who ought to have been her defender, and her protector? Well, the Lord knows. Paul tells
the Galatians in the New Testament, be not deceived, God is not mocked,
for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. There may not be accountability
immediately in this world, but there will be accountability
in a day to come. And God will not hold men or
women guiltless for the crimes that they have committed and
the sins that they have done. Temar grieved for the hurt and
the humiliation that had been inflicted upon her. But the dishonour
was Amnon's. She tore her maiden clothes,
which were a symbol of her virginity, and she put dust and ashes on
her head, and she held her head, and she wept. Such was the sorrow
that she now felt. David, the king, we're told that
when he heard about this, he was angry. In fact, we're told
that he was very wroth. He was very angry. But David was weakened now. David was weakened by his own
disgrace in his own family and he did nothing to rebuke or to
punish Amnon. You know, we do not even discover
that David took this matter before the Lord to seek advice. Absalom. took his sister into
his own house to live with him. And there she remained. We do
not know for how long. She's not mentioned again in
scripture. She just appears in this moment
and then she is gone forever. But Absalom hated Amnon for what
he had done to Tamar. But he didn't let it show. He
bided his time and he waited. And all the while, the hatred
at the heart of David's family festered. Here are some lessons
that we might learn from this passage today. Now I don't wish to say anything
to lessen Amnon's guilt in this matter, but I shall say this,
that he did not act alone. The subterfuge, the trickery,
the scheme that he should pretend to be sick and he should lie
in his bed and he should ask his father to send his sister. This trick to get Tamar into
Amnon's bedroom was down to this man Jonadab. And I wondered what
I could say about this situation. I cannot better Robert Hawker's
comments as far as what he has to say on this issue. So I'm going to read to you now
what Robert Hawker says and this is a lesson which I think is
very important. Here's what Hawker says. What
an awful thing it is to have in what the world calls a friend
the worst of all enemies. Here is a subtle, ill-designing
man acting as an agent of Satan and covering it under the mask
of friendship. Reader, says Hawker, there is
a friend I would earnestly recommend to you whose very wounds are
faithful who loveth at all times and sticketh closer than a brother. Who can this be but Jesus? Concerning other friends, I recommend
nothing, says Hawker, unless it be caution in the choice of
them. But if you make Jesus your friend,
he will ensure your choice in all others. Young people who are listening
today, I can only echo Mr Hawker's remarks. Make Jesus your friend and he
will ensure your choice in all others. Here's a second thing that we
might draw our attention to from this passage today and this is
Tamar's predicament in this situation. She tried her best to prevent
this crime from happening. She supplied good arguments that
might have caused a wiser man second thoughts. But she could not resist her
brother's greater strength. From a worldly perspective, Tamar
had so much going for her. She was privileged. She was a
princess. She was wise. She was beautiful. She was accomplished. But all
these things meant nothing in this situation in which she was
in. And all these things were taken
from her in one brutal day. Where there are crimes, there
are victims in this world. And we do not know what became
of Tamar. She is only a name in history. Her story is as we have it here
in the Scriptures. But what will be our story? What will happen to you and me
in this life, in this world? None of us know what the future
holds. Tamar did not know what the day
was going to bring when she acted obediently, doing her father's
will, going to the aid and assistance of what she thought was her brother
in need. She did not know what the day
would contain. What will our story be? What will happen to us in this
world? As I say, none of us know what
the future holds, none of us know what a day holds, but there
can be no better advice than this, that we commit our care
into the safekeeping of the Lord Jesus Christ and we trust him
with our life. If we do that, it doesn't mean
that no bad thing will happen to us in this world, but it does
mean that the Lord will direct our paths and even when things
do go wrong, the Lord will bring good from it. I hope that Tamar
found some peace and happiness in this world. But I know the
much greater need is for you and me to find peace with God
through our sins forgiven, which alone can bring peace in this
world, contentment in this world, and joy and glory in the next. And the third thing that I just
want to mention, and then we'll be done, is to do with Amnon again. And I
don't want to pre-empt next week's message, but Amnon's sin, as
far as we know, was never repented of. Shameful as his conduct was, there is forgiveness for sin
with God. even for an Amnon. There is grace for you and there
is grace for me who ask mercy from God. Now you may say, well,
I could never do what Amnon did. Well, we're going to be thinking
about that a little bit more later. But the truth is that
none of us know the depths to which we could fall. And even
now, it may well be that there are sins in our lives that we
feel regret for. There are things that we have
done that we are sorry for. There are things that we have
done that we wish we could be forgiven for. Amnon never found
mercy from God. Amnon never repented of his sin. But I have a message for you
today. If you have sins that lie heavy on your heart and in
your conscience, let me point you to the Lord Jesus on the
cross. Because he died carrying the
sin and guilt of his people to pay the price of their sin and
to take away their guilt. and he lives today to bring mercy
and that sense, that knowledge of forgiveness to those who place
their trust in him. Sinners like you and like me
find cleansing by trusting in the Saviour's death in our place. If you are burdened with sin,
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, come unto me all ye
that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest and
he surely will. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.