[Here are some notes of a very early sermon of mine.  It’s not quite how I would go about constructing a sermon nowadays, but neither am I ashamed of it!]

Once upon a time there was a king who lived in a fine palace in a great city

This king had a number of wives. By one of his wives he had a son whose name was Amnon.

By another of his wives he had a beautiful daughter, named Tamar, and a handsome son named Absalom And the king loved his son Absalom.

Now Amnon lusted after his half-sister Tamar, and he overpowered her, and raped her, leaving her distraught and desolate.

When the king heard about this, he was furious, but took no action.

Absalom, however, silently made up his mind to avenge his sister. Two whole years he waited, and then he seized his opportunity to have his servants murder his hated brother Amnon.

Absalom fled from his father, King David, and stayed in exile for three years.

David longed to see him again, but did nothing. It was left to Joab, the wily commander-in-chief of the David’s army, to engineer Absalom’s return to the royal city.

In due course Absalom was reconciled to his father the king, although concerning the fact that Absalom had taken the law into his own hands by killing his half-brother Amnon David did nothing.

Now Absalom began plotting the downfall of his father the king.

He provided himself with a chariot and horses and fifty body-guards. And he would sit himself down by the road leading to the royal city and there meet those who came from far and wide to bring their complaints before the king.

Absalom would say, to them ‘There’s no-one in the city who can hear your case. Tell me about your problem.  Then he would give the complainant the judgement he wanted to hear. Absalom’s motto at this time was a simple one, ‘When. a man comes to me for advice, I find out what advice he wants, and then I give it to him.’

And each man would go back to his own town saying how wise and just Absalom was ‘Every inch a king’,

And so it was that Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. And still his father king David did nothing.

For four years Absalom gradually built up his own popularity and undermined that of his father the king.

And in the course of time he gathered his followers together under the pretext of religious worship, and caused the trumpets to sound across the land with the proclamation, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron’.

Absalom’s father king David fled from the royal city and rallied his loyal followers.

In due course a mighty battle took place in the open countryside and in the deep forest, and Absalom’s army was defeated.

Absalom himself was riding his mule through the forest. He caught his head in the branches of a great oak tree, and despite David’s orders that Absalom should not be harmed, Joab hurled three javelins into his heart, and Absalom’s body was thrown into a pit and covered with stones.

When David heard that his wayward, beloved son was dead, he covered his face and wept and cried out, ‘0 my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you – 0 Absalom, my son, my son.’  And King David was inconsolable.

And I ask, concerning this whole disastrous story, Why?

How do we explain how a favoured son of a godly man can plot his father’s downfall so ruthlessly?

I think we need to look both to David the father as well as Absalom the son to discover the reasons for this tragic conspiracy.

1. DAVID’S PART

It is not always the case, when a child goes off the rails, that the parents are to be blamed; but in the case of Absalom, I believe David must bear some responsibility.

David had prepared the ground for this bitter episode first of all, by his polygamy.

God had said (Deut 17:17) the king ‘must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray’.

But David did, as did Solomon after him, and it seriously undermined the stability of both family and nation.

But secondly, David had opened up the possibility of Absalom’s conspiracy by his own disgraceful treatment of Bathsheba and her husband Uriah.

Had David not seduced Bathsheba, and then attempted to cover the whole thing up by sending Uriah to the front line of the battle where he knew he would be killed?

Being then an adulterer and a murderer himself, how could David discipline Amnon after he raped Tamar; and how could he punish Absalom after he had Amnon killed?

His own shame prevented him from taking any corrective action against his sons.

For these reasons, then, David weakened his ability to put down those deep roots which are so necessary for the nurture of good and godly children.

Please note that David did not lack affection towards Absalom. But what he failed to do was to give his love any real moral direction.

Christian parents today need to begin early the process of Christian nurture. By establishing early habits of instruction, guidance and correction they will be training themselves as well as their children in godliness.

Pray 22:6 says, ‘Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.’  This is exemplified in the case of Timothy, who evidently received much Christian instruction from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, and who from infancy knew the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make us wise for salvation.

A favourite passage of mine is Deut 6:4-f f: ‘These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door­frames of your houses and on your gates.’

It is in the home that life’s most crucial curriculum is taught to our children. On average, our children spend one per cent of their time in

church, 16 per cent in school, and the remaining 63 per cent in and around the home. We who are Christian parents need to take careful thought as to the Christian nurture of the children God has lent us. And perhaps the church as a whole should be offering more guidance, more support, more training for parents in this matter of the spiritual nurture of children.

‘No man or woman ever had a nobler challenge or a higher privilege than to bring up a child for God, and whenever we slight that privilege or neglect that ministry for anything else, we live to mourn it in heartache and grief’ (Vance Havner).

2. ABSALOM’S PART

We turn now from David’s role to Absalom’s part in this family disaster.

Look at Absalom: what an impressive young man! So handsome, so charming! But in his heart he is ambitious, cunning, and ruthless.

David was used to fighting off attacks from foreign enemies. He knew what it was for his countrymen to turn against him. He could even contemplate his friends forsaking him. But for his own son to plot his downfall…

In Absalom’s behaviour towards David we have a great example of the danger of the enemy within.

By ‘our enemy within’ I mean of course, Satan. For Satan has two main strategies against God’s kingdom: open attack from the outside, and subtle infiltration from the inside. And the second, the attack from within, which is of course far difficult to recognise and more difficult to combat,

Was Absalom attractive? – so can the Devil be: he ‘masquerades as an angel of light’ .

Was Absalom ambitious? – so is the Devil: Isa 14 may well be speaking of Satan when it says, ‘You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of ^God,

Was Absalom cunning? – so is the Devil, and Paul says, ‘I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ,’

Was Absalom ruthless? – so is the Devil: Jesus said that he was ‘a murderer from the beginning’.

Satan is able to insinuate himself into God’s world, and prevent countless numbers of folk from ever having a single thought towards to the God who made them and who loves them, Why? ‘The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ’.

More than this, he is at work within the church of God, stirring up false teaching and fanning the flames of grievous divisions. If Satan can’t keep people away from church, then he’ll do his best the make sure that their time is wasted on anything so long as he can prevent them from developing any kind of relationship with God.

And yes: Satan’s influences reach even into the hearts of Christian believers, to kill our confidence in God and stifle our witness. And he is dangerous just because he is cunning. Bishop Pyle put it like this: ‘Temptation to sin will rarely present itself in its true colours, saying, “I am your deadly enemy, and I want to ruin you forever in hell.” Oh, no sin comes to us, like Judas, with a kiss; and like Joab, with an outstretched hand and flattering words,”‘

Attractive, ambitious, cunning and ruthless, Satan is the enemy within the world, within the church, within the human heart.

Those who are strangers to God’s grace have no real defence against the enemy within. For those who are believers, however, ‘he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.’ Let us not be ignorant of the strategies of the Evil One. But neither let us be ignorant of the triumph of God over Satan.

For we must look, once more, beyond this story of David and Absalom, and ponder the achievements of ‘great David’s greater Son’. It is Christ, by his sinless life, and atoning death, and his glorious resurrection, who has overcome the powers of darkness.

And though not yet banished for ever, Satan is already an utterly defeated foe. Jesus said, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven,’ indicating that the Devil was already suffering defeat. Paul assures us that ‘The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”Put on,’ he says elsewhere, ‘the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand,’

The story of Absalom’s conspiracy against his father David is one of the most tragic episodes in the whole Bible. By God’s grace let us resolve to do all that we can to raise our children up to love their parents, and to love the Lord, with true sincerity. And by God’s grace let us discern the devices of the enemy within and the victory which belongs to all those who are in Christ,