2 Samuel 13:23–39 (ESV)

Absalom Murders Amnon

²³ After two full years Absalom had sheepshearers at Baal-hazor, which is near Ephraim, and Absalom invited all the king’s sons. ²⁴ And Absalom came to the king and said, “Behold, your servant has sheepshearers. Please let the king and his servants go with your servant.” ²⁵ But the king said to Absalom, “No, my son, let us not all go, lest we be burdensome to you.” He pressed him, but he would not go but gave him his blessing. ²⁶ Then Absalom said, “If not, please let my brother Amnon go with us.” And the king said to him, “Why should he go with you?” ²⁷ But Absalom pressed him until he let Amnon and all the king’s sons go with him. ²⁸ Then Absalom commanded his servants, “Mark when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon,’ then kill him. Do not fear; have I not commanded you? Be courageous and be valiant.” ²⁹ So the servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king’s sons arose, and each mounted his mule and fled.

³⁰ While they were on the way, news came to David, “Absalom has struck down all the king’s sons, and not one of them is left.” ³¹ Then the king arose and tore his garments and lay on the earth. And all his servants who were standing by tore their garments. ³² But Jonadab the son of Shimeah, David’s brother, said, “Let not my lord suppose that they have killed all the young men, the king’s sons, for Amnon alone is dead. For by the command of Absalom this has been determined from the day he violated his sister Tamar. ³³ Now therefore let not my lord the king so take it to heart as to suppose that all the king’s sons are dead, for Amnon alone is dead.”

Absalom Flees to Geshur

³⁴ But Absalom fled. And the young man who kept the watch lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, many people were coming from the road behind him by the side of the mountain. ³⁵ And Jonadab said to the king, “Behold, the king’s sons have come; as your servant said, so it has come about.” ³⁶ And as soon as he had finished speaking, behold, the king’s sons came and lifted up their voice and wept. And the king also and all his servants wept very bitterly.

³⁷ But Absalom fled and went to Talmai the son of Ammihud, king of Geshur. And David mourned for his son day after day. ³⁸ So Absalom fled and went to Geshur, and was there three years. ³⁹ And the spirit of the king longed to go out to Absalom, because he was comforted about Amnon, since he was dead.

Psalm 78:36–72 (ESV)

³⁶  But they flattered him with their mouths;
they lied to him with their tongues.

³⁷  Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
they were not faithful to his covenant.

³⁸  Yet he, being compassionate,
atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
and did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹  He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again.

⁴⁰  How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the desert!

⁴¹  They tested God again and again
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²  They did not remember his power
or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,

⁴³  when he performed his signs in Egypt
and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.

⁴⁴  He turned their rivers to blood,
so that they could not drink of their streams.

⁴⁵  He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,
and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶  He gave their crops to the destroying locust
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷  He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamores with frost.

⁴⁸  He gave over their cattle to the hail
and their flocks to thunderbolts.

⁴⁹  He let loose on them his burning anger,
wrath, indignation, and distress,
a company of destroying angels.

⁵⁰  He made a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death,
but gave their lives over to the plague.

⁵¹  He struck down every firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵²  Then he led out his people like sheep
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³  He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴  And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountain which his right hand had won.

⁵⁵  He drove out nations before them;
he apportioned them for a possession
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶  Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God
and did not keep his testimonies,

⁵⁷  but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they twisted like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸  For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
they moved him to jealousy with their idols.

⁵⁹  When God heard, he was full of wrath,
and he utterly rejected Israel.

⁶⁰  He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,
the tent where he dwelt among mankind,

⁶¹  and delivered his power to captivity,
his glory to the hand of the foe.

⁶²  He gave his people over to the sword
and vented his wrath on his heritage.

⁶³  Fire devoured their young men,
and their young women had no marriage song.

⁶⁴  Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵  Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
like a strong man shouting because of wine.

⁶⁶  And he put his adversaries to rout;
he put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁷  He rejected the tent of Joseph;
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸  but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loves.

⁶⁹  He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded forever.

⁷⁰  He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹  from following the nursing ewes he brought him
to shepherd Jacob his people,
Israel his inheritance.

⁷²  With upright heart he shepherded them
and guided them with his skillful hand.

2 Timothy 2:1–13 (ESV)

A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus

2 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, ² and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. ³ Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴ No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. ⁵ An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. ⁶ It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. ⁷ Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

⁸ Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, ⁹ for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! ¹⁰ Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. ¹¹ The saying is trustworthy, for:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
¹²  if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
¹³  if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.

–Johann Michael Reu, Luther on the Scriptures