2 Samuel 18 Devotional

The Death David Could Not Die

“The king was shaken and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he walked, he cried out, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!””2 Samuel 18:33 (BSB)

David sends his army out with one command: deal gently with the young man Absalom for his sake (18:5). But Absalom's head catches in the branches of an oak, and Joab, ignoring the king's order, thrusts three spears into him (18:14). His body is thrown into a pit under a heap of stones. The narrator adds that Absalom had once set up a monument to keep his own name alive (18:18). The man who reached for a name ends under a pile of rocks.

Two runners bring the news, and David asks each the same question: is the young man Absalom safe? When he learns the truth, he weeps, crying out that he wishes he had died instead of his son (18:33). It is a father's cry, and David could not make it happen. But God did what David could not. Paul says Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). The Son of God died in the place of rebels, so that rebels could come home.

To think about: How does knowing that Christ died for you while you were still a rebel change the way you come to God today?