2 Samuel 14 Devotional

A Way Home for the Banished

“For we will surely die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life, but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.”2 Samuel 14:14 (BSB)

Absalom has spent three years in exile, and David longs for him. So Joab sends a wise woman from Tekoa with an invented story about a widow whose last son faces death for killing his brother. Once David promises protection, she turns the story on him. Then she says something truer than the scheme that carried it: human life drains away like spilled water, but God makes plans to bring the outcast back to himself (14:14).

David brings Absalom back, but only halfway. For two years Absalom lives in Jerusalem without seeing the king's face (14:24, 14:28). When they finally meet, there is a kiss but no confession, no repentance, and no real reconciliation. David's way of bringing the banished home skipped over the wrong and healed nothing. God's way is different. At the cross he showed himself both just and the one who justifies those who trust in Jesus (Romans 3:26). He does not merely allow the banished to return. He deals with their guilt and makes them truly his own.

To think about: Is there any part of you that still feels banished from God, and how does the cross answer that?