The apple may not fall...
Illustration
The apple may not fall so very far from the tree, but sometimes it drops with such impact that the tree itself is shaken right to the roots. The trouble between David and his son, Absalom, began as family conflicts often do, in conflicting loves and loyalties. Absalom's full sister, Tamar, was a lovely young woman; their half-brother, Amnon, David's son by another wife, was obsessed with her. When she resisted his advances, claiming the protection of incest laws, Amnon schemed an advantage. On pretext of illness, he got her alone and when she refused him, raped her. Though it would have been understood differently at the time, by Absalom's and contemporary standards, David's reaction was indefensible. In the rough and tumble of earlier nomadic law, Amnon's sin wasn't so much against Tamar as against David himself: Amnon had lowered her marital value. As both father and victim, David could make whatever claim against Amnon that he considered appropriate. In the end, he let his love for his eldest son override concern for Tamar's injury. Absalom's outrage compounded itself with Tamar's desolation. Eventually, in a plot worthy of David himself, he arranged for Amnon's death. As usual, the short term satisfaction of revenge led to longer term troubles: Absalom had cut himself off from father and family. From there, the trouble escalated. Blessed with David's ability to spot an opportunity but lacking the finer tuning of experience, Absalom assembled a fellowship of the disgruntled and set out to claim his father's throne. He actually made some progress in that direction, winning the hearts of the people and taking over Jerusalem. David had to flee. But even an army of negatives cannot produce a positive -- eventually, for the lack of any real vision, complainers start complaining about one another. As Absalom's alliance fell apart, David reasserted his leadership and set his commanders on Absalom's trail. There is something Monty Python-like about the last scenes of the drama, played out in 2 Samuel 18. His long hair flowing, Absalom attempted escape astride a mule, which served him about as effectively as Israel's army under his leadership. Thrashing through some trees, the mule left Absalom hanging, caught in the crotch of an oaken branch. In spite of orders to the contrary, old General Joab made short work of him. David could see himself in Absalom, no doubt. Experience aside, they were a matched pair. Maybe that was the secret of David's grief. It was the beginning of his own end.
