The Cord of Sin That Would Not Break

Absalom kills his brother Amnon and flees to his mother’s family, where he stays for three years. Longing for his son, David calls him home, yet it is a decision he was pushed into by the words of the woman Joab sent, and he neither rebukes the sin nor forgives it. So another two years slip by, with David still refusing to see him.

Once David drew away from God after the matter of Bathsheba, the wise judgment he had once shown grew clouded as well. He would neither deal firmly with Absalom’s sin nor take him to his heart and bring him to repentance, and so resentment was left to build; through that gap a man like Joab, hiding behind a woman, pressed his own will through. Admired only for his outward appearance, Absalom never repented of that sin and ended as a rebel, and David’s indecision was powerless to prevent Absalom’s death or the rebellion of Adonijah that followed.

Only through repentance is sin forgiven and a new beginning made possible. Those filled with the Holy Spirit can discern people who mean to deceive them, but once they grow spiritually dull they cannot even judge whom to keep beside them. Whoever comes to understand the will of God and strives to turn back will not face the same struggle with sin a second time.