2 Samuel 13-15 Leadership void, leadership folly

April 8th, 2 Samuel 13-15

       What do you get when you add together a family sex crime + injustice + 2 years + murder + 3 years + 2 years? You get a troubling story found today in this text. For me it's the number of years that pass by that I never noticed earlier in life.
       It just always seemed like Absalom was a bad egg in the nest of David's family tree. In the end he is responsible for his own action and maybe he was a bad egg, but David's passivity to defend the honor of his daughter is appalling and Absalom takes notice. The royal family shouldn't be raping one another and the law of the land should be enforced on your family members as well as on everyone else.
       Amnon gets a pass on his first rape and two years later Absalom decides to take matters into his own hands and make justice happen.  Add three years and two more years and chapter 15 introduces us to a slimy salesman outside the city gates of Jerusalem. The guy with the slicked back hair, shiny suit, and wagon full of elixir is none other than Absalom. "Oh that there were a judge in the land! Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me and I would give them justice."
       Add another four years and Absalom acting like he cared about justice will win the hearts of people for your cause. Your cause against one who doesn't care about justice, doesn't care about my sister, doesn't care about your sister... Come to me..."the just, care-giving, Absalom."
       Playing amateur psychologist, my guess is that David's own failure with adultery and murder keeps him from being the right man for the job when it comes to justice in his own family(so he thinks). His passivity in these family matters are certainly another glimpse at the cost of his own sin. In the same manner Absalom is responsible for his own sin as well. David's response to inadequate leadership (Saul) was vastly different than Absalom's. All of us have our part to play in not adding to the heartache of this story of life.
      There are a lot of lessons here. Lessons about leadership, our own sin, our own response to other's  sin. What strikes you about the story today that is a point of growth for you??