{"id":33870,"date":"2024-12-23T22:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T05:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2-samuel_14_1-20-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-12-17T16:31:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T23:31:15","slug":"2-samuel_14_21-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2-samuel_14_21-33\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Give Others the \u201cHalf & Half\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Samuel\u00a0 14:21-33\u00a0 \u00a0 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Samuel 14:21-33.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

2 Samuel 14:23-33 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Joab went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem.
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But the king said, “He must go to his own house; he must not see my face.” So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the face of the king.
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In all Israel there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the top of his head to the sole of his foot there was no blemish in him.
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Whenever he cut the hair of his head–he used to cut his hair from time to time when it became too heavy for him–he would weigh it, and its weight was two hundred shekels by the royal standard.
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Three sons and a daughter were born to Absalom. The daughter’s name was Tamar, and she became a beautiful woman.
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Absalom lived two years in Jerusalem without seeing the king’s face.
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Absalom sent for Joab in order to send him to the king, but Joab refused to come to him. So he sent a second time, but he refused to come.
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then he said to his servants, “Look, Joab’s field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire.” So Absalom’s servants set the field on fire.
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Joab did go to Absalom’s house and he said to him, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?”
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Absalom said to Joab, “Look, I sent word to you and said, ‘Come here so I can send you to the king to ask, “Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me if I were still there!”‘ Now then, I want to see the king’s face, and if I am guilty of anything, let him put me to death.”
\n33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Joab went to the king and told him this. Then the king summoned Absalom, and he came in and bowed down with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 23-33:\u00a0 After some dramatic persuasion orchestrated by Joab, King David finally agrees to bring his son Absalom back from exile.\u00a0 But although Absalom is now back living in Jerusalem, King David insists that Absalom must not see his face (v24).\u00a0 So Absalom lives two years in Jerusalem without seeing David’s face, on top of the 3 years he was exiled in Geshur.\u00a0 That\u2019s 5 years without seeing his dad\u2019s face or hearing his dad\u2019s voice.\u00a0 Eventually Absalom cannot stand it anymore.\u00a0 He sets a part of Joab’s house on fire to get Joab’s attention and demands that he see his father in person (v32).\u00a0 Joab reports this to David, who finally meets Absalom face to face and kisses him.<\/p>\n

Absalom was like a celebrity in Israel.\u00a0 But as popular, famous and attractive as Absalom was to the people of Israel, the one person whose attention and approval Absalom longed for and couldn\u2019t get was his dad.\u00a0 Being ordered not to see his father\u2019s face or hear his father\u2019s voice for five years, Absalom could not help but feel rejected by his dad.<\/p>\n

Why would David let Absalom come back and live in Jerusalem, but refuse to let Absalom see his face?\u00a0 It’s because David was still hanging onto some bitterness against Absalom, so David gave Absalom a “half and half” — half grace and half guilt.\u00a0 This didn’t help Absalom or their relationship at all.\u00a0 Absalom was deeply hurt by his dad refusing to meet him face to face, so much so that he wished he could have been back in exile in Geshur or put to death (v32) than to endure this long, indirect, silent guilt trip for years.\u00a0 David’s effort to forgive and embrace his lost son was half-hearted.\u00a0 It would end with Absalom rebelling against David in the worst way, as we will see in the chapters that follow.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from all this?<\/p>\n

First,\u00a0we all long to have the attention and approval of our father<\/strong>.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a built-in desire that we all have, such that nothing hurts like believing that our dad doesn\u2019t approve of us or doesn\u2019t want us.<\/p>\n

Second,\u00a0broken relationships cannot be restored by giving the half and half — “half grace and half guilt”.\u00a0 When you forgive someone, go the whole way in forgiving them.\u00a0 Let go completely of any debts you think that person still owes you.\u00a0 Only then will you and the relationship be truly free to move forward. \u00a0<\/strong>Otherwise the half grace you give will be canceled out by the half guilt you give, and bitterness will eventually take over the whole thing.<\/p>\n

Third, the Bible says that each of us has sinned against God our heavenly Father, and that our sin separates from God, such that we cannot be in God\u2019s presence anymore.\u00a0 But\u00a0because God did not want us to live without His presence, because He longs to be with us too, God sent Jesus Christ to take away the sin that separated us from our heavenly Father.\u00a0 Through Jesus Christ, we can be in close relationship with our Father again, hear His voice, feel His presence, and see the light of His face.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, thank You that when I was lost and estranged from You, You welcomed me back not with half grace and half guilt, with 100% grace and forgiveness.\u00a0 Help us to do the same with those whom we know we must forgive.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

opyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Samuel 14:21-33.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

2 Samuel 14:23-33 (NIV)
\n23\u00a0\u00a0Then Joab went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem.
\n24\u00a0\u00a0But the king said, “He must go to his own house; he must not see my face.” So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the face of the king.
\n25\u00a0\u00a0In all Israel there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the top of his head to the sole of his foot there was no blemish in him.<\/p>\n

On verses 23-33:\u00a0 After some dramatic persuasion orchestrated by Joab, King David finally agrees to bring his son Absalom back from exile.\u00a0 But although Absalom is now back living in Jerusalem, King David insists that Absalom must not see his face (v24).\u00a0 So Absalom lives two years in Jerusalem without seeing David’s face, on top of the 3 years he was exiled in Geshur.\u00a0 That\u2019s 5 years without seeing his dad\u2019s face or hearing his dad\u2019s voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33873,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33870\/revisions\/33873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}