Fr. Mike preaches hope for the future of those with wounded hearts as we read the stories of Tamar, Amnon, and David. No matter what's in your past - things you've done or things that have been done to you - there is abundant hope for your future because God desires to make you whole. Today's readings are 2 Samuel 13, 1 Chronicles 17, and Psalm 35. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Chapter 1: Who is Father Mike Schmitz and what is the Bible in a Year podcast about?
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
Chapter 2: What are the key biblical readings for Day 131?
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 131, day 131, which is also Ascension. one of my favorite Psalms. And we are reading not from that Psalm, but from 2 Samuel chapter 13, also 1 Chronicles chapter 17.
And the Psalm today that we're praying is Psalm 35. As always, the translation that I am reading is from, is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition, I am specifically reading from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year.
You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe, and that would be wonderful. As I said, it is day 131. We are reading from 2 Samuel chapter 13, 1 Chronicles chapter 17, and praying Psalm 35. 2 Samuel chapter 13, Amnon defiles Tamar. Now Absalom, David's son, had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar. And after a time, Amnon, David's son, loved her.
Chapter 3: What is the story of Amnon, Tamar, and Absalom in 2 Samuel 13?
And Amnon was so tormented that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her. But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother. And Jonadab was a very crafty man. And he said to him, O son of the king, why are you so haggard morning after morning? Will you not tell me?
Amnon said to him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister. Jonadab said to him, Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill. And when your father comes to see you, say to him, Let my sister Tamar come and give me bread to eat and prepare the food in my sight that I may see it and eat it from her hand. So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill.
And when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, please let my sister Tamar come and make me a couple of cakes in my sight that I may eat from her hand. Then David sent home to Tamar saying, go to your brother Amnon's house and prepare food for him.
So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house where he was lying down and she took dough and kneaded it and made cakes in his sight and baked the cakes. And she took the pan and emptied it out before him, but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, send out everyone from me. So everyone went out from him. Then Amnon said to Tamar, bring the food into the chamber that I may eat from your hand.
And Tamar took the cakes she had made and brought them into the chamber to Amnon, her brother. But when she brought them near him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, come lie with me, my sister. She answered him, no, my brother, do not force me for such a thing is not done in Israel. Do not do this wanton folly. As for me, where could I carry my shame? And as for you,
you would be as one of the wanton fools in Israel. Now therefore I beg you, speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you. But he would not listen to her, and being stronger than her, he forced her and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her with very great hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her.
And Amnon said to her, Arise, be gone. But she said to him, No, my brother, for this wrong in sending me away is greater than the other which you did to me. but he would not listen to her. He called the young man who served him and said, put this woman out of my presence and bolt the door after her.
Now she was wearing a long robe with sleeves, for thus were the virgin daughters of the king clad of old. So his servant put her out and bolted the door after her. And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe which she wore. And she laid her hand on her head and went away, crying aloud as she went. And her brother Absalom said to her, Has Amnon your brother been with you?
Now hold your peace, my sister. He is your brother. Do not take this to heart. So Tamar dwelt, a desolate woman, in her brother Absalom's house. When King David heard of all these things, he was very angry. But Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad, for Absalom hated Amnon because he had forced his sister Tamar. Absalom avenges his sister.
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Chapter 4: How did Absalom avenge Tamar's wrongs?
When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build the house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son.
I will not take my merciful love from him as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever." In accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. David's Prayer And this was a small thing in your eyes, O God.
You have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come and have shown me future generations, O Lord God. And what more can David say to you for honoring your servant? For you know your servant. For your servant's sake, O Lord, and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness and making known all these great things.
There is none like you, O Lord, and there is no God besides you. According to all that we heard with our ears, what other nation on earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his people, making for yourself a name for great and terrible things and driving out nations before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt?
and you made your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O Lord, became their God. And now, O Lord, let the word which you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as you have spoken, and your name will be established and magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel's God.
And the house of your servant David will be established before you, for you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him. Therefore, your servant has found courage to pray before you. And now, O Lord, you are God, and you have promised this good thing to your servant.
Now, therefore, may it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you, for what you, O Lord, have blessed is blessed forever. Psalm 35, Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies, a Psalm of David. Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help.
Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers. Say to my soul, I am your deliverance. Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life. Let them be turned back and confounded who devise evil against me. Let them be like chaff before the wind with the angel of the Lord driving them on. Let their way be dark and slippery with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.
For without cause they hid their net for me. Without cause they dug a pit for my life. Let ruin come upon them unawares and let the net which they hid ensnare them. Let them fall therein to ruin. Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his deliverance. All my bones shall say, O Lord, who is like you, who deliver the weak from him who is too strong for him?
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Chapter 5: What is God's covenant with David in 1 Chronicles 17?
Father in heaven, we give you praise and we thank you because we do find ourselves in battles. We find ourselves called upon to act, called upon to speak, called upon to refrain from acting and called upon to be silent. All these different times, Lord, it's so confusing sometimes how we should act and how we should not act. When we should move, when we should not move.
Lord, especially when you've entrusted your children to our care. It's hard to know when discipline is called for and when mercy is called for. It's hard to know when justice is called for and when forgiveness and clemency is called for. And so, God, we just ask for your wisdom in making decisions, your wisdom in assisting others, your wisdom in serving others, and your wisdom in leading others.
Because God is often complex. Life is often complex. And the next step is not always absolutely clear. And so we pray for wisdom, to know what to do, to know how to move forward, to know how to be yours, and to know how to actually help the people around us. Help us to be the kind of people who can help the people around us. I make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
amen gosh man oh man we so let's first start with first chronicles because it's a little bit easier we have the it's not a redo right you know redux of second samuel where david says hey i hear i'm living in a house of cedar and god's living in a tent and nathan says go ahead do whatever you want but then you know comes to him and says no you don't have to make me a name you have to make me a house i'm gonna make you a house i'm gonna build of you a great name and then david's prayer is so good because he realizes
God says, I took you from the fields. I took you from leading sheep and I made you the king over all Israel. And there's something so powerful about that. David realizes that he has been blessed. He's been called to greatness. He truly has been called to greatness. He's been given a mission. Remember this.
Remember when David first met Samuel and Samuel comes before all of Jesse's sons and God points out and says, no, David's the one. David is the one that I want to be anointed to be king of my people Israel. He's a man after my own heart.
Remember what God had said about David when he said, the man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks into the heart and he saw something in David's heart that that was chosen, right? That he anointed him. We have to note this.
We have to note that first Chronicles chapter 17, where God reaffirms the fact that David's dynasty will endure forever, that his son will be on the throne and there'll be a kingdom through which this family blesses the entire world. I bring all those good things up about David that again, the Lord reminding, no, I have anointed David in first Chronicles that of him, I will make a great nation and
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Chapter 6: What does David's prayer reveal about his faith and hope for the future?
I remind us of this because we know in 2 Samuel 11 that David commits adultery with Bathsheba and sexually exploits her. We know that he arranges for the murder of her husband Uriah. We know that in chapter 12, David is busted by Nathan the prophet and that David repents of this sin and yet there's still consequences to his sin. And one of the consequences is here in chapter 13.
And here in chapter 13, we have one of David's sons, Absalom, another who has a sister, Tamar, one of David's daughters, Tamar. And he has a half-brother, Amnon. So another son of David is Amnon. And we've got the story, right, where here is Amnon who is lusting after his half-sister, Tamar. So they have the same dad, different moms. And it's just, it's horrible.
Half of chapter 13 is the story of how Amnon essentially rapes his sister Tamar. And you can see in this played out the mystery of sin. This is just the mystery of sin that it says that Amnon made himself sick over this. How much he loved her. There's not another word that we can translate in 2 Samuel. The word is lust, really. He doesn't love his sister Tamar. He simply wanted to use her.
He was lusting over her. Although scripture, again, there's limited words. So it just says he loved his sister Tamar. And then we have Amnon's buddy who says, here's the trick. Here's how to get this woman into your presence in private so you can just do whatever you want with her. And here is Tamar, who is just simply serving her brother.
And this is just, gosh, I know this is a painful chapter for so many people who have been in this situation. Even chapter 11 being a painful situation when we talk about the story of David and Bathsheba. And this is one of the words I just want to speak to all of our sisters here who have experienced that exploitation of someone like Amnon or someone like David.
And that sense of being able to say, I've been in that situation, but here is the story of sin. Amnon basically takes his sister. And this is just the mystery of sin, not just sexual sin, but the mystery of almost any sin where here is Tamar who says, don't do this. Basically, she's arguing for her dignity and she's arguing so powerfully for her dignity.
She's basically saying, if you talk to our father, David, we can be married. I don't know all the situations and outs of how that would work with half brother, half sister kind of situation. But here's Tamar who at least offers something of dignity, right? Something of like, treat me like a human being.
Treat me like someone who's worthy of respect, worthy of dignity by marrying me, not by simply taking advantage and raping me. But he would not listen. And he was stronger than her. And he forced her and he lay with her. And then the verse 15 says, then Amnon hated her with a very great hatred so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her.
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Chapter 7: What is the message of Psalm 35 and how does it relate to the episode's theme of hope?
And again, this is part of the mystery of sin, not just every, not just sexual sin, but almost every sin where we finally get what we've been pining after, coveting, lusting after, and we finally get it. And then we hate. There is this sense of shame. There's a sense of disgust. Now, Amnon treated Tamar horribly.
And now he feels horribly and he despised her presence because she's a sign of his shame. And she says, don't, please don't put me away because you've just done this. You've done, you've defiled me.
Essentially right here is Tamar who, yeah, she wasn't, I don't see merely, wasn't merely raped, but here Amnon in that culture, he had destroyed not only Tamar's present, he had destroyed her future because now how can she be someone's wife? Because again, in that culture, you marry a And here is Tamar, who's now been defiled by her brother, basically used up and discarded.
And again, let's go back to this place of just place of grace. We're called upon Jesus now because there are so many people who are listening that this, you've experienced this. You have experienced this firsthand where someone violated you. And just in Jesus name, I just want you to know. That Tamar's story is horrible.
And because you can see her cry of her heart where she says, not only have you used me up, now you're throwing me away. And I know that so many people who have been used like this, they feel they're used up. They feel they're disqualified. They feel they can't ever be loved again. And that's not true.
We, in Jesus' name, I just want to pray in Jesus' name over you, listening to this, hear my words in your ears and let the words of God penetrate your hearts, is that you are not unlovable. Even if someone has used you and abused you, you are not unlovable. You're not disqualified from being loved truly and forever. You're not disqualified that you're present.
Your past has been marked by true wounds and true ugliness and true evil, but your future is restorable. Your future is redeemable. Your future is a future full of hope because our God is a God who takes things that are broken and makes them whole again. He takes things that are lost and he finds them. He takes things that are dead and he gives them life again.
And if you feel yourself, you know, this is for everybody, whatever your experience has been, if you feel broken and
jesus desires to make you whole if you feel lost he desires to find you and if you feel dead he wants to raise you up and give you a future full of hope just hear these words this is true about how god's love for you and your future your life is not over not by a long shot as we return to our story it says in verse 21 when king david heard all these things he was very angry
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