Tuesday 5th November
Read 2 Samuel 13:3-6
“Now Amnon had an advisor named Jonadab son of Shimeah, David’s brother. Jonadab was a very shrewd man. 4 He asked Amnon, ‘Why do you, the king’s son, look so haggard morning after morning? Won’t you tell me?’
Amnon said to him, ‘I’m in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.’
5 ‘Go to bed and pretend to be ill,’ Jonadab said. ‘When your father comes to see you, say to him, “I would like my sister Tamar to come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare the food in my sight so that I may watch her and then eat it from her hand.”’
6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill. When the king came to see him, Amnon said to him, ‘I would like my sister Tamar to come and make some special bread in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand.’” (NIVUK)
It is hard to work out how we should consider Jonadab. He is described as shrewd by the author. Shrewdness is akin to being crafty and is sometimes described positively in Proverbs. Jesus tells a parable concerning a ‘shrewd’ manager. Shrewdness though does have negative connotations also. When we consider the fall, the first line runs… ‘Now the snake was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.’ (Genesis 3:1) (NIVUK). Given that Jonadab entices Amnon to act on his desires, by deceiving his father and sister, using food, I lean towards the more sinister understanding of ‘shrewd’.
Are there people in your life who act in a similar way – appealing to your baser instincts? When the Lord teaches us to pray that we not be led into temptation is this perhaps what He means?
