“Meanwhile, the king covered his face and cried aloud, ‘Oh, my son Avshalom! Oh, Avshalom, my son, my son!‘”-2 Samuel 19:5
I hate to say it.
However, from verse 5 of 2nd Samuel 19, we encounter a quite pathetic scene.
Here we have the great King David weeping over his dead and evil son, Absalom.
Imagine if you were one of the soldiers in his army.
You’d be confused as all hell, wouldn’t you?
They had just engaged in a battle in which they were both outnumbered and outmanned.
And they emerged VICTORIOUS!
Yet, because of David’s behavior, they were left wondering whether they had done right or wrong.
I feel sorry for David’s army.
Now, there’s an interesting Hebrew word being used in verse 5 where it says he “covered” his face.
That word is ʿATAH or עָטָה.
It means “to wrap, cover, envelop, clothe.”
The idea is that the head and face were completely covered by a TALLIT (prayer shawl) or some other article of clothing.
It was a customary mourning tradition for the Hebrews, whether male or female, to cover their heads when someone close passed away.
Here are other uses of the word:
“But Haman hurried to his house,
mourning and with his head covered.”
(וַעֲטוּי רֹאשׁ).”
-Esther 6:12
“The seers shall be ashamed…
they shall all cover (וְעָטוּ) their lips,
for there is no answer from God.”
-Micah 3:7
“Let my accusers be clothed with dishonor;
let them cover (וְיַעֲטוּ) themselves with their
own shame as with a robe.”
-Psalm 109:29
So understandably, David’s general Joab was ticked off big time at how David was acting.
The rebellion had been successfully put down, and David was ready to reassume the throne.
This should have been a day of great celebration.
Yet here the king was bawling his eyes out like a baby with a mourning cloth covering his head.
The army would have been conflicted as all hell.
Had they done wrong and would now be punished or something?
That’s probably what they were thinking.
Joab was concerned that if he didn’t do something, morale would completely collapse, and what was probably now a very disillusioned army would disband and go home.
We’ll examine Joab’s words the next time we meet.
But for now, let’s switch over to the takeaway.
There’s a sad reality we need to confront in the character of King David at this stage in his life.
If he had had his way, his wicked son, Absalom, would not have been killed.
And the rebellion against David could’ve turned the other way.
It took David’s men doing the right thing DESPITE the King’s wishes.
The lesson to be learned here is not to be taken in by the dangerous tendency to show mercy toward those who don’t deserve it and have been earmarked by God for destruction.
It’s the same tendency the Israelites displayed when they refused to completely drive out the Canaanites from the land down to every last man, woman, and child.
Why didn’t they obey God’s instructions in this matter?
Probably out of some BS notion of political correctness and sensitivity.
The only reason we have a crisis in the Middle East today is because Joshua and his men didn’t follow God’s instructions in the first place.
That’s right, folks.
October 7th happened because the Israeli government showed mercy to a people group who did not deserve it and should’ve NEVER been living in Gaza in the first place.
“Free Palestine”?!
What a freakin’ joke!
The land was never bequeathed to them in the first place.
This is probably gonna be the most politically incorrect thing I’ve ever said in my life, but it’s the truth.
The God we worship is a God of genocide…and that’s a good thing!
Ya feel me?
Think about it.
Any God who would systematically destroy pretty much all of mankind by flood because of their wickedness is a God of genocide.
What else would you call it?
And check out these verses:
“Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”–1 Samuel 15:3
“But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God.”–Deuteronomy 20:16–18
“Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.”–Joshua 6:21
Keep in mind, the holy war protocol of harem (often expressed as “devoted to destruction” in Scripture) is the very same protocol Messiah will follow in the battle of Armageddon when he returns to rescue Israel from her gentile enemies.
He’s gonna execute God’s justice so ferociously we’re told blood is gonna flow like a river up to the height of a horse’s bridle.
So, so much for this lopsided image of a meek and mild Christian Jesus who would never hurt a fly and spent all of his free time kissing babies.
The lesson to be learned here is to NOT let some misplaced sense of mercy and love detract you from doing God’s Will.
And yes, it may even cause you to go against your family, as it was in David’s case.
There’s probably no politician in the world, whether right-wing or left-wing, who could say what I just said without being castigated all to hell.
But I don’t give a damn.
The truth needs to be said.
Done.
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