When is enough ~ enough?

Today, when I got to 2 Samuel 3 and began reading the sons that were born in Hebron and then the name of the mothers two things hit me. First, the importance of sons and second the listing of David's wives or concubines. All at once so many things flooded my mind.

Jealousy first and foremost. A situation setup like this had to birth jealousy from a very young age. The mother's felt it you know and the children began to experience it from watching their mothers. After all, you place yourself in the situation whether you were the second wife or the sixth concubine you desired the attention of the King, your husband, your child's father. I read Amnon's name and think why? Why did this son born in Hebron to Abinoam later grow up to rape his sister? What caused this act to happen? Did desire for the off limits young girl make this desire happen?

Next you had Daniel or Chileab who was Abigail's son. Most commentaries think he must have died early because he never entered into the mix for the throne. He wasn't even mentioned much - imagine the self-esteem issues. He wasn't important enough to be mentioned in death or life what is this about? After all, we know Abigail kept David from making a terrible mistake and yet her son isn't valued enough to be mentioned more?

Absalom whose name means "Divine Father of Peace" or "My Divine Father is Peace" is next born to David and Maacah, a princess from a region in Syria. Not a love marriage probably a marriage about diplomacy. Now the name alone speaks to Absalom's life. Peace was never a part of Absalom after the rape of his sister, Tamar. Absalom had to flee his homeland after the murder of his brother and then he returned to ruin his father. Absalom was later killed in battle. Peace evaded Absalom and this marriage.

Fourth, we have Adonijah who later contended for David's throne. He was killed.
Fifth, we have Shephatiah which means the Lord judges.
Sixth, we have Ithream, whose mother was Eglah, David's wife. One commentary told me that this was listed like this to emphasis polygamy. All of these men were in line for the throne and that is what is being emphasized. David had more wives and more children once he returned to Jerusalem. How many do you think loved David? How many were marriages of he's the king, so okay? How many were she absolutely had no choice in the matter?

Girls, women did not have much choice in situations during the times of David. Whether she loved him or not did not matter much to all the men involved...I read this and I felt sadness. Sadness for the women and the children because knowing they were human like us it was a difficult situation before it even started. Before one child was a great warrior, or one wife had beautiful eyes, or one wife was so smart, or what about that son that runs so fast, or the son that looked just like David...so many things before any of these words were uttered...

We all have hindsight and know the stories of these boys that became men...

Do you think the women were friends? Do you think they were truly at peace knowing their husband didn't love them and them alone? or even worse that he didn't love them at all that it was a diplomatic matter?

Yes, David was God's anointed King, but I don't think he consulted God on all of his choices. Doesn't this offer some hope for us? We fail or at least I do daily a lot...David failed too. Hope, because God loves all of us so very much!

My prayer today is for choices that God desires I make in my journey! Choices that God approves of and not my evil desires that yes we all have inside of us...Read James it tells us about evil desires...Read God's Word and ponder about the people. Place yourself in the stories and realize that they are people with real feelings just like us. Good vs. evil, Light vs. Dark, from the very beginning

Sweet blessings,
Debbie