2 Amnon was so distressed over his sister Tamar that he became sick; for she was a virgin. And it was improper for Amnon to do anything to her.
(2 Samuel 13:2, NKJV)
4 And he said to him, “Why are you, the king’s son, becoming thinner day after day? Will you not tell me?”
(2 Samuel 13:4-5a, NKJV)
Amnon said to him, “I love Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”
5 So Jonadab said to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill.
If you can’t tell, I cannot get past the craziness in 2 Samuel 13-18. It’s full of temptation, sin, rape, murder, grudges, greed, covetousness, false peace and parenting blunders. Last week, I shared about the missing verse here, 2 Samuel 13:3 where we learn the importance of seeking the right friend and the right advice during temptation, all of which Amnon did not do. Instead he listened to a cousin known for his craftiness.
But this week, I want to focus on another aspect from the surrounding verses. Amnon was literally sick with lust for his sister (yuck). Up to this point, he was avoiding his physical temptation, but it was ravaging his mind, which in turn made him physically ill. His cousin approached him asking what in the world was going on with his weight loss.
Unchecked temptation, will affect you, no matter how long you ignore it.
Don’t believe the lie that unfulfilled temptation won’t lead to sin. Amnon may have been consoling himself in the fact that at least he wasn’t acting on his temptation. But look what happened. Instead of him defeating his temptation, the temptation wore him down until he raped his sister. Give temptation the respect it deserves. You are not stronger than it…BUT God is!!
What would have happened if he had taken his temptation to the Lord? I guarantee, the end result wouldn’t have been rape!
But no, Amnon didn’t take it to the Lord. The temptation grew into sin. During this process, nothing makes sense. You cannot depend on your own judgment or logic. You will remain ravenous until the temptation is fed. Listen to the advice that Amnon took. He was told to pretend to be ill. Hello… he was ill! Does that make sense to you? NO! But because Amnon was under the haze of temptation, this made perfect sense, as did physically forcing himself on his sister.
After an argument, or bad choice, have you ever uttered the words, “I don’t know what I was thinking.”? Conversations and actions that take place while in this hazy state won’t make sense to you later.
It is SO important that we turn to the Lord! Stop depending on your own understanding because you will lie to yourself when given the chance to feed temptation.