“When David arrived at his palace in Yerushalayim, the king took the ten women who were his concubines, whom he had left to care for the palace, and put them under guard. He provided for their needs but never slept with them again. They were kept in confinement until the day of their death, living like widows with their husband still alive.”-2 Samuel 20:3
When David returned to Jerusalem, the first matter he directed his attention to was his 10 concubines who had been sexually humiliated by Absalom.
David’s attitude towards them was similar to how he had treated his wife, Michal (Saul’s daughter).
Recall that Saul, in his paranoia, took Michal away from David and gave her to another man.
Later, David reclaimed Michal.
However, we’re told Michal remained childless all of her life.
So it seems like David never slept with her after that.
Now, here, David is doing the same thing with his ten concubines.
This seems like unusually cruel behavior.
Did these concubines commit a crime?
That’s a difficult question to answer.
It’s not like Absalom raped them.
Yet, it wouldn’t be correct to say they consented to having sex with him either.
The best answer I can come up with is to point to the customs of the times.
In those days, when a new king ascended to the throne, he also inherited the harem of his predecessor.
Of course, this included the right to intimacy with them.
However, when Absalom slept with his father’s 10 concubines in broad daylight, he wasn’t following some common practice.
It was actually one of the most wicked acts recorded in Scripture.
This was the brazen act of a son trying to displace his father.
And doing it in the most humiliating way possible.
Recall, way back in the book of Genesis, Reuben did the same thing when he slept with his father, Jacob’s concubine.
“And it came to pass,
while Israel dwelt in that land,
that Reuben went and
lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine;
and Israel heard of it.”
-Genesis 35:22
As a result of this adultery, he lost the respect of his father, who said:
“Unstable as water,
you shall excel no longer;
For when you mounted your father’s bed,
You brought disgrace—
my couch he mounted!”
-Genesis 49:4
Bottom line, this was a power play to usurp his father’s authority.
This also leads me to a takeaway that I wasn’t going to share, actually.
But it came to me with such power and clarity that I feel compelled to go with it.
So here goes:
The wickedness of Absalom trying to displace his father reminds me of trinitarian Christianity’s claim that Yeshua supplanted His Father by making Himself out to be God, when he NEVER said such a thing.
In fact, it was always quite the opposite.
Yeshua always stressed his proper place in juxtaposition with the Father…
And he always gave his Father in heaven proper credit where it was due.
He never tried to usurp his Father’s power and authority as Absalom did.
What Absalom did is the chief characteristic of the Anti-Christ.
Ya feel me?
Done.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“My Father is greater than I.”
– John 14:28
“Very truly I tell you,
the Son can do nothing by himself;
he can do only what he sees his Father doing,
because whatever the Father does
the Son also does.”
– John 5:19
“By myself I can do nothing;
I judge only as I hear,
and my judgment is just,
for I seek not to please myself
but him who sent me.”
– John 5:30
“For I have come down from heaven
not to do my will
but to do the will of him
who sent me.”
– John 6:38
“My teaching is not my own.
It comes from the one who sent me.”
– John 7:16
“He who sent me is trustworthy,
and what I have heard from Him
I tell the world.”
-John 8:26
“I do nothing on my own
but speak just what
the Father has taught me.”
-John 8:28
“Now this is eternal life:
that they know you, the only true God,
and Messiah Yeshua,
whom you have sent.”
-John 17:3
“Yeshua said,
‘Do not hold on to me,
for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
Go instead to my brothers and tell them,
‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.’”
-John 20:17
“When he has done this,
then the Son himself will
be made subject to Him
who put everything under him,
so that God may be all in all.”
-1 Corinthians 15:28
“’Why do you call me good?’
Yeshua answered.
“No one is good—
except God alone.'”
-Mark 10:18
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