Who was David’s greatest enemy? Goliath? King Saul? The Philistines? How about Absalom?
David’s own son staged a coup, taking his father’s throne and forcing David and his armies into the streets, running for their lives. His son? What happened?
David had children by so many wives that there were half-brothers and half-sisters all over the kingdom. Amnon fell in love with his half-sister Tamar, raped her, then tossed her aside. Tamar’s (full) brother Absalom waited for David to address the injustice. But King David, though angry, did nothing. Two years later, Absalom killed Amnon himself, a choice that set him on a path of rebellion against his father that grew into insurrection and eventually a usurpation of his father’s throne. Absalom was ready to kill David and all his men.
David ended up running for his life and composed Psalm 3 while in hiding, a fugitive from his own son. Was Absalom then David’s greatest enemy? No.
David’s greatest enemy was himself.
Following adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, David lost the “MORAL HIGH GROUND.”
He did not lose his sense of right and wrong. He did not even lose his relationship with God—he prayed through Psalm 51 and was restored to fellowship with God.
But David lost the “MORAL HIGH GROUND,” the ability to take decisive action against the sin of his children.
When Amnon raped Tamar, David probably saw in Amnon his own sin with Bathsheba. David sympathized, perhaps, with his son’s failure, and he lacked the WILL to execute justice. David should have had Amnon put to death under the law, or if that was too much for him, he could have had him banished. He should have done SOMETHING. But he let the memory of his own sin rob him of the MORAL WILL to enforce the law.[1]
Sin weakens our resolve, and sometimes serious sin leaves us indifferent to true holiness—even after we have made things right with God. It is simply difficult to expect others to make the good choices we failed to make ourselves.
May we never sin so severely we lose the moral will to demand the best from ourselves and those around us.
ΑΩ
[1] King David likewise suffered from a Separation of Powers problem. As king, David was the legislator who made laws, the executive/prosecutor who enforced laws, and the judge who decided cases. When these three powers are combined in a single man, corruption follows. Someone other than David should have tried and adjudicated the case against Amnon. I have often written that this was Pontius Pilate’s problem: his concern at keeping the peace (a politician/legislator’s concern) caused him to fail as judge, allowing the trumped-up case against Jesus to proceed with neither a valid legal basis nor evidence to support the case.
Household Words: 