2 Samuel 14:14; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

Introduction:

1. Grasping the balance between God’s love and His justice is difficult.

2. Often people run to polar extremes of loveless law or lawless love.

3. The truth is at neither of these poles as one cannot cancel the other.

4. This discussion focuses on God’s intense effort to bring home His banished ones who have estranged themselves with sin.

Discussion:

I. The Context: The Sins of David, Amnon, and Absalom

A. The context of this discussion is the tragic result of David’s sins.

B. 2 Samuel 11 records David’s egregious sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.

C. 2 Samuel 12 records Nathan’s rebuke of David, culminating with the prophecy that the sword would never depart from David’s house (vv. 10-11).

D. 2 Samuel 13 records the dysfunction as David’s son, Amnon, raped his daughter, Tamar (Amnon’s half-sister), and his son Absalom killed Amnon.

II. The Consequences: Estrangement

A. The result of these tragic events is David became estranged from Absalom who had fled for his life (2 Samuel 13:34-39).

B. David’s heart longed for his son always (2 Samuel 13:37-14:1).

III. The Conciliatory Heart of God

A. Seeing David’s sorrow, Joab devised a plan to bring Absalom home.

B. A widow from Tekoa approached David with a story about her two sons quarreling until one killed the other (2 Samuel 14:1-11).

C. The avenger of blood was to put the killer to death, but this would leave her destitute and her deceased husband with no heir (2 Samuel 14:6-11).

D. David had mercy on her and her son, securing his pardon (2 Samuel 14:11).

E. She asked David why he would make such provision for her son but not for his own son, thereby securing Absalom’s pardon (2 Samuel 14:12-17).

F. We desperately need to remember “God does not take away life, but He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him” (2 Samuel 14:14).

Conclusion:

1. While our sin separates us from God, it is never His desire we remain so.

2. He gave His sinless Son to reconcile sinners to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:14-21).

3. Why would we remain estranged when He has done so much to reconcile us?