”Therefore the woman said, “Please, let your maidservant speak another word to my Lord the king.” And he said, “Say on.” So the woman said: “Why then have you schemed such a thing against the people of God? For the king speaks this thing as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring his banished one home again. For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him. Now therefore, I have come to speak of this thing to my Lord the king because the people have made me afraid. And your maidservant said, ‘I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his maidservant. For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the inheritance of God.’ Your maidservant said, ‘The word of my Lord the king will now be comforting; for as the angel of God, so is my Lord the king in discerning good and evil. And may the Lord your God be with you.’ ”“
II Samuel 14:12-17 NKJV
a. The king does not bring his banished one home again: The woman of Tekoa spoke boldly to David, confronting his sin of not initiating reconciliation with Absalom. Because he was estranged from David and growing more and more bitter, Absalom was a threat to Israel and David allowed it (Why then have you schemed such a thing against the people of God?).
i. David had some responsibility to initiate reconciliation. If David approached Absalom, he might be rejected, but he still had the responsibility to try. Yet as king and chief judge of Israel, he also had a responsibility to both initiate reconciliation and to do it the right way. David will not succeed in this.
ii. “He is willing to pardon the meanest of his subjects the murder of a brother at the instance of a poor widow, and he is not willing to pardon his son Absalom, whose restoration to favour is the desire of the whole nation.” (Clarke)
b. We will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground: The woman of Tekoa wisely spoke to David about the urgency of reconciliation. “David, we all die and then the opportunity for reconciliation is over. Do it now.”
c. But He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him: The woman of Tekoa meant, “Find a way to do it, David. God finds a way to bring us back to Himself.” It is true that God finds a way – but not at the expense of justice. God reconciles us by satisfying justice, not by ignoring justice.
i. This is one of the best gospel texts in the Old Testament. If we are under the chastening of God, we may feel like banished ones. Yet we can accept the place of being banished, but still belonging to Him and trusting Him to bring us back to Him. If we must be banished, may we be His banished ones.
ii. God has devised a way to bring the banished back to Him that they might not be expelled from Him. The way is through the person and work of Jesus, and how He stood in the place of guilty sinners as He hung on the cross and received the punishment that we deserved. (Guzik)
Banished Ones
“But He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him:”
We have a God of second chances!
”Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.“ Matthew 18:21-22 NKJV
If we are to forgive a brother up to seventy times seven times, will not God do the same? He will seek us out and call us back to Him!
”“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.“
Matthew 18:12-14 NKJV
Recently in the news was a famous Christian singer who confessed for 20 years he led a double life of drugs and inappropriate actions with people of the same sex.
He was lost and went astray, but has now been found and returned to God.
If you have fallen and gone astray, God desires that you repent and return to Him!
Do you believe He is a God of second chances?
Blessings
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