A Reconciliation (2 Samuel 14)

Is reconciliation a good goal even if not always possible? To whom do we need to be reconciled? Let’s look at 2 Samuel 14.

Did Joab plan to talk David into allowing Absalom to come home?

Meanwhile, Zeruiah’s son Joab knew that the king’s attention was focused on Absalom, so he sent messengers to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please play the role of a mourner, wear the clothes of a mourner, and refrain from using makeup. Act like a woman who’s been in mourning for the dead for many days. Then go to the king and speak to him like this…” Then Joab told her what to say. When the woman from Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, prostrating herself to address him, “Help, your majesty!” The king asked her, “What’s your problem?” “I’ve been a widowed woman ever since my husband died,” she answered. (2 Samuel 14:1-5 ISV)

Did the wise woman tell a story in some respects similar to that of David’s two sons?

And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and slew him. And, behold, the whole family is risen against thine handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the heir also: and so they shall quench my coal [remaining ember] which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth. And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee. (2 Samuel 14:6-8 KJV)

Did the woman speak in a similar wise manner to Nathan the prophet regarding Bathsheba and Uriah?

And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “O my lord, the king, the iniquity is on me and my father’s house, but the king and his throne are guiltless.” So the king said, “Whoever speaks to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you anymore.” Then she said, “Please let the king remember Yahweh your God, so that the avenger of blood will not continue to bring about ruin, so that they would not destroy my son.” And he said, “As Yahweh lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.” (2 Samuel 14:9-11 LSB)

Was the woman actually pleading for Absalom, David’s banished son?

Then the woman said, “Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.” And he said, “Speak.” The woman said, “Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is like one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring back his banished one. For we will surely die and are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. Yet God does not take away life, but makes plans so that the banished one will not be cast out from Him. Now then, the reason I have come to speak this word to my lord the king is that the people have made me afraid; so your servant said, ‘Let me now speak to the king, perhaps the king will perform the request of his slave. For the king will listen, to save his slave from the hand of the man who would eliminate both me and my son from the inheritance of God.’ Then your servant said, ‘Please let the word of my lord the king be comforting, for as the angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil. And may the Lord your God be with you.’” (2 Samuel 14:12-17 NASB)

Did the woman finally admit that Joab had set her up to speak to the king?

Then the king said to the woman, “Don’t keep from me the answer to what I am going to ask you.” “Let my lord the king speak,” the woman said. The king asked, “Isn’t the hand of Joab with you in all this?” The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything my lord the king says. Yes, it was your servant Joab who instructed me to do this and who put all these words into the mouth of your servant. Your servant Joab did this to change the present situation. My lord has wisdom like that of an angel of God—he knows everything that happens in the land.” (2 Samuel 14:18-20 NIV)

Did Absalom return home? Was he famous for having a lot of hair?