King David's Failure as a Father & Sunday School Outline
A brief thought on last week's morning sermon and my notes on WSC 99 & 100
Life with a toddler can be a bit tumultuous, that is something it has in common with Michigan’s weather. The latter of which played havoc at work this week and led to a rather challenging and exhausting week. Needless to say, I didn’t have the time to type up my Lord’s Day notes this week. But the passage we read and heard a sermon on in the morning is not one that I wanted to let pass without comment.
In a sermon entitled, “Outrageous,” Pastor Cruse exposited one of the darker chapters of King David’s life and reign, the story of Amnon’s rape of Tamar and Absalom’s murder of Amnon in 2 Samuel 13.
It is a deeply disturbing passage of Scripture, for the obvious evil done to Tamar, a two-fold failure of David, and how Absalom’s reaction holds a mirror to my own heart.
David is both father and King of the three main characters in this story. As a King he fails to pursue justice for Tamar for the crime committed against her and as a father he fails all three of his children here. David leaves it to Absalom to take Tamar into the protection of his household. David leaves Amnon unrebuked and unpunished. David leaves Absalom’s rage to burn until it breaks out in wrath.
In their exposition on the Fifth Commandment, the Westminster Divines in the Larger Catechism detail the sins of superiors, of which David is both as father and King in this story.
Q. 130. What are the sins of superiors?
A. The sins of superiors are, besides the neglect of the duties required of them, an inordinate seeking of themselves, their own glory, ease, profit, or pleasure; commanding things unlawful, or not in the power of inferiors to perform; counseling, encouraging, or favoring them in that which is evil; dissuading, discouraging, or discountenancing them in that which is good; correcting them unduly; careless exposing, or leaving them to wrong, temptation, and danger; provoking them to wrath; or any way dishonoring themselves, or lessening their authority, by an unjust, indiscreet, rigorous, or remiss behavior.
David’s failure as a father and a King to pursue justice for Tamar and punishment for Amnon is the very definition of provoking Absalom to wrath. A desire for justice is good and noble, but in the face of injustice unanswered, that desire can slip into a pursuit of vengeance, the right to which God reserves to himself alone (Romans 12:19).
This story unnerves me because of my reaction to it. I identify too closely with Absalom and my heart wants to justify his anger and his wrath. Absalom’s plot is as contrived and premeditated as Amnon’s own wicked plot. The superscript in our printed bibles even helpfully label it as “murder.” We see Absalom usurping both his father and God in enacting his wrath. There are no heroes here, only sinners. The troubling thing is realizing that some sins feel almost right.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” ~Jeremiah 17:9
Teen Sunday School Outline:
Q. 99. What rule hath God given for our direction in prayer?
A. The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but the special rule of direction is that form of prayer which Christ taught his disciples, commonly called the Lord’s prayer.
Matthew 6:9-15 & Luke 11:1-4
Matthew 6: 7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.[a]
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,[b]
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,[c]
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.[d]
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Luke 11: Now Jesus[a] was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread,[b]
4 and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
Differences in Lord’s prayer:
Differences in the two accounts
Critical text vs. received text (Greek New Testament translation relying on different early church manuscripts)
Critical text: “In 1881 two prominent scholars, Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton J. A. Hort, printed their New Testament in Greek, later known as the Critical Text. Dismissing the Textus Receptus as an inferior text rife with errors, Westcott and Hort compiled a new Greek text, with special focus on two fourth-century manuscripts, the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus.”
Received Text = Textus Receptus = Reformation text
Westminster Confession and Catechisms uses the TR. That's why we have the concluding sentence we will look at in Q/A 107.
J.A. Vos:
It is a directory for worship rather than a form of prayer. This is
evident in—
(1) The many variations in the prayer as given in the Sermon on the
Mount and as repeated when the disciples said, "Lord, teach us to
pray" (Matt. 6:10–13; Luke 11:1–4).
(2) There is no evidence that Christ, the apostles or the New
Testament Church at any time used this prayer in public or private
worship.
(3) No form of prayer is recorded in the Old or New Testament as
enjoined, recommended or used by God's people. They always
employed their own words as their circumstances and needs
prompted.
Yet "it may be used as a prayer, so that it be done with
understanding, faith, reverence, and other graces necessary to the
right performance of the duty of prayer" (Larger Catechism, Ques.
187), and vain repetitions of it be avoided (Matt. 6:7).
Neither does it prescribe the order of the petitions, nor is it a
framework in which our desires must be fitted. The prayers uttered
by Christ and his disciples were not according to the order here
given. They were most spontaneous and free in form and expression
(John 11:41, 42; 17; Acts 1:24, 25; 4:24–30).
Its design is to show the "manner" of prayer, in what spirit, in what
relation to God and his Church, and for what things we should pray.
All the recorded prayers of Christ, his apostles and the early Church
were in accordance with the directions here given.
The natural divisions of the Lord's Prayer are those presented in
Luther's Catechism, the Heidelberg and the Westminster—the
preface, petitions and the conclusion.
1st. The preface: invocation, our relation to God and to each other.
2d. The petitions: the glory of God in salvation.
(1) As regards God.
(a) The honoring of the name—of the Father.
(b) The establishment of the kingdom—of Christ.
(c) The accomplishment of his will—by the Spirit.
(2) As regards us, who as colaborers need—
(a) Bread—temporal and spiritual nourishment.
(b) Forgiveness—from God and to others.
(c) Freedom—from temptation and the power of the devil.
3d. The conclusion: ascription of all glory to God, in which we are to
be partakers.
Q. 100. What doth the preface of the Lord’s prayer teach us?
A. The preface of the Lord’s prayer, which is, Our Father which art in heaven, teacheth us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others.
JA Hodge: We recognize his immense superiority. He is in heaven, and we are on earth, with all that these terms indicate. Yet he is our Father, reconciled to us, loving us, delighting to commune with us, and more ready to give than we are to ask.”
“He is "our Father," because—
(1) Of his own will he has made us sons (John 1:12, 13; James 1:18).
(2) Of our union with Christ. Out of Christ we were aliens and strangers (Eph. 2:12; Col. 1:21), but in him the sons of God (Gal. 3:26; 4:5; Eph. 1:5). Being one with him, we hold the same relation to his Father, and enjoy the same privileges—sons, heirs, coheirs with him (John 20:17; Rom. 8:17, 29; Heb. 2:11).
(3) This and all prayers are by, with and through him as our intercessor (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25; 9:24).
(4) Being of his household, we are identified with his name, kingdom and will (Matt. 9:15; 25:34; Luke 22:28, 29).
(5) We are also united with all the children of God, and we must not only love them as such, and pray for them, but also, even in secret prayer, join with them in their desires and labors, saying, "Our Father which art in heaven.”
Webb: “The conception of God as Father is the most charming and transporting thought which ever enters into the bosom of man; and the correlative conception of himself as the son of God is the most soothing and satisfying thought which a sinner ever finds himself indulging concerning himself.”
“The paternity of God, the filiation of believers, the fraternity of all the saints, the household of faith, the family of God in heaven and earth, make a circle of domestic ideas, which the Christian values above all the gold of Egypt, above all the gold of the world.”
This preface speaks directly to the doctrine of adoption which we talked about in Q 34 of the Catechism:
Q. 34. What is adoption?
A. Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of, the sons of God.
“At the beginning God stood related to his human creatures as his Lord and Ruler and as his Father and Friend…In both relations he sinned…After the fall, the sinner’s status is precisely that of a proscribed and outlawed citizen of the kingdom, and a banished and disinherited son of the house of God.”
Relationship to Justification: (Status)
“Justification is the act of grace whereby we sinful subjects of God’s government are received inot the number of, and given a right and title to, all the privileges of the kingdom of God. Adoption is that act of grace, whereby we fallen sinners are received into the number of, and are given all the rights and privileges of, the sons of God.”
Relationship to Regeneration: (Posture)
“In the fall, the sinner not only lost the rights and footing of a child(filial position), but he lost also the heart and spirit of a child(filial nature).”
“Regeneration is that act of saving grace which, at least incipiently, imparts to him his lost filial disposition, while adoption is that act of grace which restores to him his filial standing. By the one, he is given the heart of a child, by the other, he is given the rights of a child.”