Learning From Absalom Series

I’m especially aware of the beauty of youth because we who are older realize that beauty fades with age as you can see if you look around at those of us over 50! Absalom was a handsome man Scripture says, but his downfall was that instead of “offering his body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” for his glory, as his father David had done when he was a young man, Absalom used his handsome body and his charm as bait to attract admirers. Then pride and the enticements that came with his popularity led him down the wrong road all the way to his death as James describes in the New Testament.

In the height of his popularity, I can hear Absalom chanting to himself as he looked at that handsome image in the mirror, “I am a Somebody, and I can go places. Just watch me climb the ladder of success all the way to the top.

Young people, I know you are bombarded with temptations to call attention to your body so that others will take notice of you and want to hang out with you. Clothes designers for teens right now try to tempt you to reveal as much skin as possible so that you have sex appeal. Every one knows sex sells so the appeal is to be daring, go to the edge in your dress then you’ll really stand out!! And MTV is always pushing the limits aimed at you young people in your dress and your conduct. But I want you to beware that such temptations are from Satan who wants you to misuse and abuse God’s beautiful gift of your body that he’s given you. He wants to see you fall into sin and destroy your life and your future. God’s exquisite master design of the human body is so that you in turn have something beautiful to offer back to him, that means your good looks, your intelligence, your wit and your talent. They were given to you so that you would offer them to him—MIND, BODY and SOUL which is your “spiritual worship” or your “reasonable service” as KJV says. That is God’s design that will save all of us from ruin!

So young people, God wants you to know that you will never be a loser when you give him your whole selves and resist the strong temptations all around you to put yourself on exhibition for personal gain. It is a lie Satan will try his best to plant in your heart but reject it in the name and the power of Jesus. Solomon, Absalom’s brother, also wrote in his book, “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman [and a man] who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

Absalom may have been the most handsome man in Israel but his sin was he allowed his good looks to go to his head. Pride crept in. And once we start feeding pride it will grow and grow and make our heads swell so that our minds will be squeezed. We’ve all seen people with big heads and little spirits. You see once we entertain one enticement it will only lead us further and further away from being in the center of God’s will.

Let’s look again as Absalom’s tactics—15:5,6 “Whenever people came near to do obeisance to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of them, and kiss them. Thus Absalom did to every Israelite who came to the king for judgment; so Absalom stole the hearts of the people of Israel.” It doesn’t say he picked up the babies and held them but clearly he was trying to gain popularity and popularity for Absalom led to the desire for power and the desire for power led to the need to get rid of the one in power in order to be TOP DOG. And that’s where Absalom went too far. God put his commandments in place for our good and we can’t just write them off without suffering the consequences he spells out. Absalom’s pride and lust for power clouded his reasoning so badly that he saw no problem with hacking down his own father in order to gain the ultimate seat of power for himself. But God intervened and stopped Absalom’s grand scheme. I’m sure Absalom reasoned, “there’s no way we can fail; we’ve got the military might so the victory is certain. We cannot fail!” But fail he did because God was fighting the battle against him.