Like Father, Like Son

David’s son Absalom had a beautiful sister named Tamar. And Amnon, her half brother, fell desperately in love with her. Amnon became so obsessed with Tamar that he became ill. She was a virgin, and Amnon thought he could never have her. . . . As she was feeding him, he grabbed her and demanded, “Come to bed with me, my darling sister.” “No, my brother!” she cried. “Don’t be foolish! Don’t do this to me! Such wicked things aren’t done in Israel.” . . . But Amnon wouldn’t listen to her, and since he was stronger than she was, he raped her. 2 Samuel 13:1-2, 11-12, 14

WHEN WORKING OUR WAY through 2 Samuel, we read in chapter 11 about David sending messengers to get Bathsheba, another man’s wife, so that he could sleep with her. Just two chapters later we read about David’s son Amnon raping his half sister, Tamar. Surely the placement of these accounts so close together is meant to show us one of the ways in which David experienced a natural consequence of his sin —having a son who committed the same sin he did.

Children tend to become like their parents in many ways. When they have our good looks, our intellectual prowess, or our athletic abilities, we take pride in the ways they are like us. But often we see that our children take after us in the ways we sin as well. And we take no pride in this. It breaks our hearts. But hopefully it does more than that. Hopefully it moves us toward genuine repentance in such a way that our children want to be like us in this way too.

If we had no power outside of ourselves to break the cycle of sin passed down from parent to child, we would be bound to perpetuate our parents’ sin, and our children would be bound to commit our pet sins. But we do have a power outside of ourselves. We and our children have access to “the power of the life-giving Spirit” who frees us from “the power of sin that leads to death” (Romans 8:2).

Lord, it grieves me to see some of my own sin patterns in ________. It’s frustrating and humbling, and a part of me is tempted to despair that the cycle will never be broken. So I’m taking hold of the hope I find in your Word, which assures me that your Spirit provides power to forsake sin, to break the cycle. May the mercy you’ve shown in response to my repentance loom much larger than my sin.