Welcome to a year in the Bible with daily grace. The Bible tells one big story of redemption.

And we want to spend five minutes every day journeying through the Bible from start to

finish and exploring how all of it points to Jesus.

We have a not so very happy episode again today as we are in 2 Samuel 13 through 15.

Today we see how David sin rips apart his family. David repented before the Lord, and

he was forgiven of his sexual sin with Bhashiba. But this does not mean that he would not

face any consequences for his sin. The Lord told him that the sword would never depart

from his house, and because David committed evil against the Lord, there would be evil

done to him. The consequences of David's fall present an important lesson for us to remember.

Our sin does not only affect us, even if we try our best to hide it. Sin always affects

the people around us as well. So the devastation begins, and it is horrible right away.

When David was married to many women and also had many concubines, he had lots of children.

The text tells us that one of his sons, Amnon, was rather taken with his sister, Tamar.

Now Amnon and Tamar had different mothers, but David was still father to both of them. Tamar

was a beautiful woman, and she was a virgin, and Amnon was infatuated with her. But this

infatuation was not love, it was only lust. And of course, because he was so overtaken

with lust, he was controlled by it. When Amnon's cousin, Jonah Dab, years of his cousin's

desires, he wickedly encourages him and helps him devise a plot so that he can take his

sister for himself. Amnon pretends to be sick, and specifically requests that his father

send him Tamar so that she can prepare a meal to feed to him. David obliges, and Tamar

does as she is told. But when she goes to feed her brother, he reveals his evil intentions.

She pleads with him, knowing this is forbidden by God, and also knowing she will be shamed

...