“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 husbands still alive.”-2 Samuel 20:3
When David fled Jerusalem to escape Absalom, why did he leave his ten concubines behind?
It seems like a foolish, if not downright heartless thing to do.
What in the world did he think would happen to them?
The bottom line is that, through no fault of their own, they were forced into sexual humiliation with Absalom.
And after Absalom was killed, and when David returned to Jerusalem, what was his response?
His sad ruling on the matter was to put them away.
They would essentially be as widows, yet with the husband (David) still alive.
They would stay in the palace and have all of their needs met.
But they would never be allowed to have children.
That may not sound like a big deal in the woke society we live in today, which, for the most part, is driven by a feminist agenda.
Heck, I guess for the feminists, David’s ruling would seem like a dream.
Just sit in a luxurious palace, chomp on Cheetos all day, and never have to worry about dealing with a man again.
But back then, for Hebrew women, this was heartbreaking beyond words.
They believed their main purpose in life was to help carry on God’s promise to Abraham by having children.
So to die childless wasn’t just sad…
It was seen as shameful, the worst kind of dishonor a woman could face.
What takeaway can we extract from this?
Well, here’s what’s coming to me.
Sexual sin is serious, man!
What Absalom did to his father wasn’t just adultery…
It was adultery multiplied by ten!
That one night of horizontal (and probably vertical too) boogie-woogie revelry cost Absalom his life and forever destroyed the relationship between him and his father.
But worse than that, it affected the innocent as well.
I feel sorry for those concubines who were forced to participate in an orgy driven by political scheming.
So, that’s your lesson for today.
Sexual sin (or any sin for that matter) is a force that leaves nothing but destruction in its wake.
It judges the guilty and seriously harms the innocent.
Let those who have ears to hear, LISTEN!
Done.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Flee from sexual immorality.
All other sins a person commits
are outside the body,
but whoever sins sexually,
sins against their own body.”
— 1 Corinthians 6:18
“Let marriage be held in honor among all,
and let the marriage bed be undefiled,
for God will judge
the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
— Hebrews 13:4
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