Tamar - Her Life And Times

Tamar - Her Life And Times

RAPE

Tamar’s half brother, Amnon, raped her. The stark words don’t begin to communicate the humiliation and despair that rape brings to those who experience it. This account in 2 Samuel 13 movingly describes Tamar’s pleas to her brother not to do this to her, pleas that echo through hundreds of years of women who have been forced into the sexual act against their will. “Since he was stronger,” Amnon could force himself on her, and Tamar had no effective means of resistance.

God’s reaction to sexual sin is evident throughout the Bible. He doesn’t turn away from the victim, and he doesn’t allow the rapist to go unpunished. Deuteronomy 22:25 says that “the man who has done this shall die.” Leviticus 18:29 reminds the Israelites that “everyone who does any of these detestable things — such persons must be cut off from their people.” In the New Testament, Paul repeatedly reminds believers to pursue sexual purity: “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:13 – 14). “Flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18). “Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality” (Ephesians 5:3).

Amnon went unpunished by his father but died when his half brother Absalom took his revenge — he didn’t go unpunished forever. And what about Tamar, the beautiful virgin princess in her rich royal robes? She felt too degraded to go back to her own home in David’s palace. How could she face her other virgin sisters? Instead, she went to live as “a desolate woman,” with her brother Absalom. The effects of rape on its victims is the same today: desolation, grief, misery.

The Bible doesn’t gloss over the fact that God’s people have participated in these dreadful acts; it describes many instances of rape, incest, homosexuality, and adultery. Why would a holy God think it necessary to include such sordid stories in Scripture? Perhaps because he knows our thoughts and actions, even if the world is blind to them. Through these stories God reminds us that he never forsakes his own, whether victim or criminal. Just as he offers help and comfort to the victims, never forsaking them in their trouble, he also offers healing and forgiveness to the evildoer.