Bible Tuesday - David Part 21

So just to recap last week.  David's son Amnon raped his siter Tamar and Absalom (Tamar and Amnon's half - brother) was real, real mad about it.

After two full years Absalom had sheepshearers at Baal-hazor, which is near Ephraim, and Absalom invited all the king's sons.  And Absalom came to the king and said, “Behold, your servant has sheepshearers. Please let the king and his servants go with your servant.”  But the king said to Absalom, “No, my son, let us not all go, lest we be burdensome to you.” He pressed him, but he would not go but gave him his blessing.  Then Absalom said, “If not, please let my brother Amnon go with us.” And the king said to him, “Why should he go with you?”  But Absalom pressed him until he let Amnon and all the king's sons go with him. Then Absalom commanded his servants, “Mark when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon,’ then kill him. Do not fear; have I not commanded you? Be courageous and be valiant.” So the servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king's sons arose, and each mounted his mule and fled.
2 Samuel 13:23-39

See if David had dealt with this situation when it happened, he wouldn't be dealing with this nightmare now.  But he didn't.  He ignored a HUGE problem and then, like an idiot, assumed that the whole thing had blown over.  Don't make this mistake in your own family.  And don't assume that you don't need to deal with your stuff just because it is nowhere near as bad as incest and rape.  God puts men in charge of families.  I know some of you don't like that but that ain't my problem.  Along with that power comes a great responsibility.   Sure, you can ignore the problems but don't think they won't eventually come back ten times worse.

David found this out the hard way.  See he started out in a bad place.  His kid had raped his other kid.  There's no way to make that situation sound any better.  But because David chose to abdicate his God given responsibility as head of his house (not to mention he was the dang king), now he has a dead son, a son that is a murderer and a dishonored, damaged daughter.