Today, we begin 2nd Samuel Chapter 14.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click HERE.
For the King James Version, click HERE.
“Yo’av the son of Tz’ruyah perceived that the king missed Avshalom; so Yo’av sent to T’koa, brought from there a clever woman and said to her, “Please, pretend you’re a mourner. Put on mourning clothes, and don’t anoint yourself with oil, but appear to be a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time.”-2 Samuel 14:1-2
Verse 1 kicks things off fast and furious with a healthy dose of intrigue.
Yo’av, one of David’s nephews and his top military commander, resurfaces.
He attempts to bring Absalom, now estranged, back to his father, David.
But why?
We can’t know for sure.
Was he just being loyal to David?
Possibly feeling a bit of empathy for the king as he longed for his son.
Or was he secretly backing Absalom, scheming to bring him back to Jerusalem and clear his path to the throne?
You know, we really can’t know for sure.
Possibly a combination of both.
One thing I can say with a degree of confidence, though, is that since Amnon was now dead, the population was probably rooting for Absalom.
Everyone knew Amnon had raped Tamar.
So they felt he got what he deserved when Avishalom had him killed.
Avishalom was only doing his duty as the blood avenger was how they saw things.
The problem was there was no blood to avenge.
Amnon didn’t kill Tamar.
He raped her.
The Law of Moses doesn’t allow the death penalty for rape.
The bottom line is that Amnon had not committed a capital crime.
Sure, what Avishalom did in retaliation was culturally expected and accepted.
But from God’s viewpoint, it was evil.
This is a perfect example of how culture and tradition butts heads with God’s way of doing things..
To put it plainly, Scripture took a back seat to the national mood and political correctness of the day.
This leads to our takeaway for today.
In our times, the same thing is happening in both Judaism and Christianity.
I ain’t playing no favorites here, homies.
Scripture is either ignored or de-prioritized in favor of the prevailing social or political trends.
Heck, the gentile Christian church has thrown the Lord’s Torah in the trash.
Or only pay lip service to it by sometimes displaying the 10 commandments in their houses of worship.
Instead of listening to what God clearly says is right and wrong in His Torah…
People prefer to follow their own fleshly and subjective ideas that they’ll claim are promptings from the Holy Spirit.
You think I’m wrong?
Well, I’ll prove it.
Take a look at this list of questions:
Is gay marriage right or wrong?
Should abortion be permitted?
Who should control the land of Israel?
Is Islam a false religion?
How would you answer those questions?
If you’re a believer, the answers should be crystal clear.
There should be ZERO HESITATION in how you answer these questions.
Of course, gay marriage is an abomination in God’s eyes.
Abortion is absolutely murder.
Per divine decree, ONLY the Jewish people should control the land of Israel.
And the core doctrines of Islam fundamentally contradict the Hebrew Bible, and thus must be rejected.
Yet there is debate and controversy over these issues in our churches and synagogues when there shouldn’t be.
Why?
Simply because people prioritize political correctness and tradition over obedience to God’s Torah.
Tolerance for anything and everything seems to be the overriding philosophy of our day.
And folks who think like me are viewed as backward extremists who need to get with the times.
What amazes me is how closely today’s world mirrors King David’s Israel in 989 BC…
Especially in its dismissive attitude toward the Holy Scriptures.
Yet all is not lost.
Just as in Elijah’s time, God has preserved a faithful remnant.
I’m talking about folks with an unshakable passion for Him and His Torah.
Across the globe, a movement is rising to restore the full authority of God’s Word.
And at the heart of this revival is the recognition that what the Lord gave at Sinai (the Torah) is still deeply relevant for our lives today.
I’m grateful to play a small part in this revolution through this blog.
See you all next time!
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“All Scripture is God-breathed
and is useful for teaching, rebuking,
correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the servant of God
may be thoroughly equipped
for every good work.”
-2 Timothy 3:16
In Exodus 19:6, God chose the children of Israel to be his (God’s) nation of priests. Now, since the Levites were already chosen to be the priests to the Jewish people, who would the Jewish people be priests to? Why, the rest of the world, that’s who, and to help us teach them how to worship God correctly (meaning the way God said to worship him, not some “religion”), he gave us the Torah.
The Torah is God’s “User Manual for Righteousness”, and despite what people think, if someone could actually live their life in 100% obedience to the Torah, 100% of the time, they would receive salvation.
Oh yes, the Torah CAN save- Yeshua proved that.
The catch is that no ordinary human can do that because we are born with iniquity, called the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination), which has been passed down from Adam. Yeshua didn’t have that handicap, since his father’s line is God.
Anyway, the world rejected the Torah, and still does, but I believe that is because we, the Jewish people, rejected it first!
We were supposed to live it, to be an example to the world, then teach them how to live it, but we failed.
And we still do, today.
Even today most Jews are not really Torah observant. The Orthodox do observe the Torah very well, but they also consider the Talmud, which is just human commentary on the Torah which defines Halacha (the everyday way we should live) as important as the Torah. The Conservative may have a Kosher home, but when eating outside the home they ignore Kashrut (kosher) laws. And even in Israel, there are many Jews who are what we call “Secular” jews, pretty much living in the land God gave us, but ignoring his rules about how to live there.
Mankind has failed God by not properly being the steward of God’s creations, as we were supposed to be, and his own chosen people have let him down- and plenty of times!- in that we have not become the example of Torah obsedience that we should be.
In a way, how can we blame the Goyim (the Gentile world) for rejecting the Torah when we, God’s chosen priests to the world, also reject it?
Excellent points. That’s why I’d love to see Israel restored to its place as the Torah light and witness to the whole world