2 Samuel 14:12–17

Therefore the woman said, “Please, let your maidservant speak another word to my lord the king.”

And he said, “Say on.”

So the woman said: “Why then have you schemed such a thing against the people of God? For the king speaks this thing as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring his banished one home again. For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him. Now therefore, I have come to speak of this thing to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. And your maidservant said, ‘I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his maidservant. For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the inheritance of God.’ Your maidservant said, ‘The word of my lord the king will now be comforting; for as the angel of God, so is my lord the king in discerning good and evil. And may the LORD your God be with you.’ ”

Having gotten permission to speak to the king freely, the “wise woman of Tekoa” drops a Nathan-like message on David. He won’t do for his own son what he’s willing to do for hers.

Next comes a theological gem. For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him.

While the idioms she uses here are hard to figure out exactly, her basic point is that while everyone dies, God grants grace. This is designed to ping David; it’s been the lesson of his life the last few years. But for the grace of God, he’d be dead. He’s been teaching that lesson too.

David has to be reeling. The parallels with his encounter with Nathan are too strong.

But then the woman abruptly switches back to talking about her own son and thanking the king for delivering his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the inheritance of God.

The shift feels awkward, as if it suddenly dawned on her that she needs to get back to the main storyline. While Nathan’s story of the rich man and the poor man was general enough to work as a parable, her story isn’t. It’s a specific personal plea for help. If it becomes obvious that this isn’t the real reason she’s there—it’s just a ruse to set David up—she’ll come across as a liar. She’s no Nathan.

But it’s too late. David got the point about Absalom as soon as she made it. All the guilt and shame that he felt when Nathan lit into him came flooding back.

So, when she switches back to talking about her son, he’s jolted out of his memories. He can sense why she’s there.

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These weekday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. Saturdays' by Matt Richardson. Subscribe here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/community

The weekly study guides, which include questions for discussion or meditation, are here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.