WHEN DADDIES GO BAD
INTRODUCTION: Our Lord has told us we are to honor our fathers and mothers: Exodus 20:12. The idea to set aside a special day in our nation to honor fathers began in 1909, but it was not until 1956 that Father’s Day became a national day to honor our fathers. Daddies are meant to love and serve their families but what happens when daddy’s go bad? Exodus 20:5. King David was a man after God’s own heart but David had a beautiful woman take his heart away from his God and his family. 2 Samuel 12:7-12; 2 Samuel 18:33. Those sad words spoken by king David are the epitaph over not only his son, but also over the sons of thousands of daddies that have gone bad.
THE STORY OF DAVID’S REBELLIOUS SON
The story of Absalom is one of the most colorful and dramatic in the history of Israel. King David was Israel’s greatest king. God had given David wealth, honor, fame, and a fine family. David’s third son was Absalom, a handsome boy that David loved with all his heart. You would think that Absalom would have loved his father but instead he resented David being king because he felt he should be Israel’s king. David and all the rest of God’s people have a strong warning from the Lord that we all should take heed of: Proverbs 17:13. King David had done exactly that to the house of Uriah the Hittite. This set the stage for evil to never leave David’s house. 2 Samuel 13:1-2; 2 Samuel 14:25; 2 Samuel 15:3; 2 Samuel 15:6; 2 Samuel 18:33.
THE SORROW OF A DADDIES HEART!
Now King David had many sons. Why did he grieve over the loss of one? The loss of one son, even if a man had ten would still break his heart and especially if he knew it was his fault that his son had died. Sadly, many daddies have yet to learn the lesson that if they do not walk in obedience to their heavenly Father they are giving up on their children. Daddies are to be the example to their children of the love and of the purity of their heavenly Father: Ephesians 6:4.
THE RETURN ON A PAST SIN!
One of the principles of God’s Word is that we always reap what we sow! As David wept for his son Absalom he must have remembered Nathan’s words: 2 Samuel 12:7-19. Please remember our God will forgive us when we confess and repent of our sin, but He will not remove all the consequences of our sin. Numbers 32:23; Galatians 6:7-9.
THE TRAGEDY OF A CHILD’S WASTED LIFE!
Absalom had more potential as a young person than any of his contemporaries. He could have been a great king, but he turned out to be a miserable failure because he squandered the gifts and abilities that God had given him. Every day that you live we are confronted with choices: Exodus 20:4-6; Jonah 2:8. Our God today is extending His grace to every son or daughter who had a bad daddy. We don’t have to reap what they have sown. 2 Timothy 4:7-8.
A PICTURE OF OUR HEAVENLY FATHER’S BROKEN HEART!
King David wished he could have died for Absalom. No earthly father can die for his son, but Jesus Christ was sent by His Father to die in our stead? All of us have been rebellious and sons of Satan: John 8:44; John 10:10-11; John 1:10-13. Only through living for Christ’s glory can we be the fathers our children need to follow.
Verses
2 Samuel 12:7-12 – 7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.
Exodus 20:12 – Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live longin the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Exodus 20:5 – 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me
2 Samuel 18:33 – 33 The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you—O Absalom, my son, my son!”
Proverbs 17:13 – 13 Evil will never leave the houseof one who pays back evil for good.
2 Samuel 13:1-2 – 13 In the course of time, Amnon son of David fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom son of David. 2 Amnon became so obsessed with his sister Tamar that he made himself ill. She was a virgin, and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her.
2 Samuel 14:25 – 25 In 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.
2 Samuel 15:3 – 3 Then Absalom would say to him, “Look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you.”
2 Samuel 15:6 – 6 Absalom behaved in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he stole the hearts of the people of Israel.
Ephesians 6:4 – 4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
2 Samuel 12:7-19 – 7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
15 After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused,and he would not eat any food with them.
18 On the seventh day the child died. David’s attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, he wouldn’t listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”
19 David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked.
“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”
Numbers 32:23 – 23 “But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the Lord; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.
Galatians 6:7-9 – 7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Exodus 20:4-6 – 4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Jonah 2:8 – 8 “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.
2 Timothy 4:7-8 – 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness,which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
John 8:44 – 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 10:10-11 – 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 1:10-13 – 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.