Coming Up Sunday, August 24

This Sunday we continue the tumultuous story of David's reign, focusing on the uprising led by his son Absalom, which was successful to the extent that David was forced to evacuate the capital, Jerusalem, and flee before the arrival of Absalom's army.

There were many causes for Absalom's revolt. At the very least, it happened after several years of estrangement between David and Absalom. Several years before, Absalom's sister Tamar was raped by their half-brother Amnon, who was David's eldest son and first in line to succeed to the throne. When David learned of this, he refused to take any action against Ammon, which infuriated Absalom. Absalom waited two years and then took matters into his own hands, ordering his servants to kill Amnon. Fearing that his father would be less forgiving of him than of Amnon, Absalom fled into a self-imposed exile.

Three years later, after being told that David's anger had cooled and that he was forgiven, Absalom returned to Jerusalem. However, David refused to see Absalom for two years, which led Absalom to question if this was what forgiveness looked like. Hearing of Absalom's frustration, David invited his son to the palace, and they reconciled.

However, Absalom used this reconciliation to unleash a plan that he obviously had been developing for a long time. Absalom requested to be allowed to go to Hebron; David approved his son's wish. Once there, Absalom declared himself king of Hebron and gathered an army to attack Jerusalem. David, sensing that the odds were against him, or just unwilling to order the army to fight against his son, fled.

On the face of it, this civil war seems like just a rebellion by a son against his aging father. But a closer look reveals that David and Absalom are guided not just by a desire to rule, but by different philosophies of leadership. To Absalom, David seems a vacillating and equivocating fool; to David, Absalom seems narrow-minded and short-sighted. This genuine conflict of ideas leads to a war.

I think that we continue to face these conflicting philosophies (and others) in our lives today, sometimes personally, sometimes in our churches, sometimes in our politics. Our instinct, I think, is to regard David's leadership as weak and perhaps unguided; to put it bluntly, we wouldn't elect David to be anything in our political system. But the lessons of scripture strongly suggest that, despite his warts, David's leadership philosophy may be the precursor of the Messiah's leadership philosophy.

In other words, David's vision may be closely related to Jesus' vision, which is identical to God's vision.