2 Samuel 14:14
The woman of Tekoah delivers a message to King David, under the guise of a weeping widow who has lost her son. She has been prompted to do so by Joab, David’s general, in hopes that David will allow his banished son Absalom to return to Jerusalem. David reads through the ruse and half-heartedly accepts Absalom back. This little story, nestled into the Old Testament gives us a hidden gem of God’s grace and it is found in the speech of this woman.
She states the obvious about man’s brief existence, and then gives glory to God for His ability to redeem mankind:
“For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from Him” (2 Samuel 14:14).
When God banished Adam and his seed from the Garden of Eden, He provided a means by which those who were banished would not be expelled from His relations. These means were laid out in Genesis 3:15, when God promised that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. Christ would be the seed of the woman, with no earthly father, and His death at the cross would not only bruise the head of Satan, rendering him ineffective, but it would provide the means by which man could come back to God through reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).
We were all banished from the presence of a holy God by the sin of our first father, Adam (Romans 5:14). However, God’s love is so great that He wished to provide a means by which all of humanity could be brought back to Him. The price was the blood of His Son Jesus, and all who accept that payment are then brought into familial relationship with the Father. The high price of our redemption should show us the infinite love of God, for no small amount of love would sacrifice its own for someone else.
If God has provided a means for us, and His love is so much greater than ours, could we not be open to bringing those back in our own lives who have slipped and fallen? Some have hurt us and abandoned us, but they are longing for a second chance. Before you keep someone out of your life because of past hurts or failures, consider the great price paid by God to keep His banished from being expelled.
The church would do good to consider and re-consider this passage, and keep a close watch out to the horizon for the return of the Prodigals. No sin should be considered “too much”; no failure considered “unforgivable”. We are a family built upon failures being erased by a loving Father; how much more should we extend that love to those that we know?
God has provided the means for reconciliation for you and you are blessed to be walking in that knowledge. Take that goodness and spread it about today. Leave the sins of the past beneath the lid that Calvary has nailed on them, and rest in the loveliness of our Jesus Christ.
The woman of Tekoah delivers a message to King David, under the guise of a weeping widow who has lost her son. She has been prompted to do so by Joab, David’s general, in hopes that David will allow his banished son Absalom to return to Jerusalem. David reads through the ruse and half-heartedly accepts Absalom back. This little story, nestled into the Old Testament gives us a hidden gem of God’s grace and it is found in the speech of this woman.
She states the obvious about man’s brief existence, and then gives glory to God for His ability to redeem mankind:
“For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from Him” (2 Samuel 14:14).
When God banished Adam and his seed from the Garden of Eden, He provided a means by which those who were banished would not be expelled from His relations. These means were laid out in Genesis 3:15, when God promised that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. Christ would be the seed of the woman, with no earthly father, and His death at the cross would not only bruise the head of Satan, rendering him ineffective, but it would provide the means by which man could come back to God through reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).
We were all banished from the presence of a holy God by the sin of our first father, Adam (Romans 5:14). However, God’s love is so great that He wished to provide a means by which all of humanity could be brought back to Him. The price was the blood of His Son Jesus, and all who accept that payment are then brought into familial relationship with the Father. The high price of our redemption should show us the infinite love of God, for no small amount of love would sacrifice its own for someone else.
If God has provided a means for us, and His love is so much greater than ours, could we not be open to bringing those back in our own lives who have slipped and fallen? Some have hurt us and abandoned us, but they are longing for a second chance. Before you keep someone out of your life because of past hurts or failures, consider the great price paid by God to keep His banished from being expelled.
The church would do good to consider and re-consider this passage, and keep a close watch out to the horizon for the return of the Prodigals. No sin should be considered “too much”; no failure considered “unforgivable”. We are a family built upon failures being erased by a loving Father; how much more should we extend that love to those that we know?
God has provided the means for reconciliation for you and you are blessed to be walking in that knowledge. Take that goodness and spread it about today. Leave the sins of the past beneath the lid that Calvary has nailed on them, and rest in the loveliness of our Jesus Christ.
