Will no one Protect Tamar?

No matter how nice we are or how loving we can be, someone is going to take advantage of our loving character.

Biblical Background – 2 Samuel 13

Remember the curse that David was under for what he did to Bathsheba and her husband Uriah? Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. (2 Samuel 12:11) Absalom, his son, is this adversary from within his house. 2 Samuel chapters 14-19 tell the whole story.

He became the adversary because of the lack of protection his father extended to his sister, David’s daughter, against Amnon their brother. Amon, with his cousins advice (David’s brothers son), got permission to have Tamar bake bread for him while he played sick. The scheming has given me a knot in my stomach.

As Tamar told him. This horrible thing, he is about to do will ruin her and make her ineligible to marry. She gave him a couple of outs but he did not want them. He wanted what he wanted and he took it. Absalom will also get what he wants as well.

Our Biblical Life Lesson: We can protect women without taking an avenging stance.

Tamar was raised in a wealthy house, with a powerful father, yet that did not protect her from the misdeeds of someone in her own family. Family is supposed to protect us from the outside world but a lot of us were in need of protection from our families.

Tamar’s brother, Absalom, did just that for her, but his protection consisted also of murder and treason. This resulted in his death and the embarrassment of David. It was also the fulfillment of a prophecy spoken to him by Nathan just one chapter before.

There has to be a way to protect each other without ending up on the wrong side of the law or dead.

Join us in The Bible Gals Sisterhood here  Monday at 1:30pm for  the “Biblical Power Tools” to learn a biblical lesson to live life to.

Read an article here in the Huffington Post especially point number 6 which talks about the staggering and rising stats about sibling sexual abuse.