David – Separated Father

Read 2 Samuel 13-15
 
2 Samuel 14:14 “But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him.”
 
DUE to a series of sins among David’s children and David’s failure to address those sins, a family breaks down. King David, the one who has conquered a giant, subdued nations, and escaped death many times, demonstrates he is incapable of dealing with his sons’ sins and daughter’s violation. And further, he is incapable of going to Absalom to say, “I love you. Let’s find a way to heal the wounds.”
    Joab understands David’s broken relationship with Absalom can lead to David and his family losing the throne. This would threaten God’s covenant promise of an eternal king through David’s line. Thus, Joab coaches a woman to reveal to David of a powerful truth of Gods’ character. God has made a promise. As God has repeatedly restored Israel’s from their sinful ways, so David must restore Absalom from his sins. David is to be a father to his son as the LORD God is a Father of the nation.
    David responds only partially to the lesson. He calls Absalom back home. Yet, David rejects a face-to-face meeting. He is unwilling, apparently, to confront the pain of reconciliation in order that father and son can enjoy the peace of reconciliation.
    This is a common story. Very many fathers and sons are separated because they will not confront the boundaries that block their relationships. But consider your Father in heaven! Who would you be, where would the world be if the Father had considered the pain of reconciliation too much to bear? Without Jesus’ pain and the Father’s sacrifice, we would not be face-to-face with God today – or ever. Yes, reconciliation is painful. But separation is deadly. There is no life where relationships die.
    Do you prefer David’s way or the LORD’s way? Look to your heavenly Father for the example of relationship restoration. With love and strength, the LORD’s will is to come into the conflicts of your heart to draw you to him. With fatherly love as his motivating force, David needed to go into the conflict of their relationship, willing to suffer the wounds of his relationship with Absalom, so father and son would be restored.
    Parents, is there something keeping you from your children? Go to them, even if you risk being wounded. Say to your child, “I love you. Let’s learn how we can live together.”
 
Reconciliation Makes You New 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: