Wednesday 6th November
Read 2 Samuel 13:7-14
“David sent word to Tamar at the palace: ‘Go to the house of your brother Amnon and prepare some food for him.’ 8 So Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon, who was lying down. She took some dough, kneaded it, made the bread in his sight and baked it. 9 Then she took the pan and served him the bread, but he refused to eat.
‘Send everyone out of here,’ Amnon said. So everyone left him. 10 Then Amnon said to Tamar, ‘Bring the food here into my bedroom so that I may eat from your hand.’ And Tamar took the bread she had prepared and brought it to her brother Amnon in his bedroom. 11 But when she took it to him to eat, he grabbed her and said, ‘Come to bed with me, my sister.’
12 ‘No, my brother!’ she said to him. ‘Don’t force me! Such a thing should not be done in Israel! Don’t do this wicked thing. 13 What about me? Where could I get rid of my disgrace? And what about you? You would be like one of the wicked fools in Israel. Please speak to the king; he will not keep me from being married to you.’ 14 But he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her.” (NIVUK)
The structure of the story focusses our attention on the bed in the bedroom of Amnon and the rape of his sister Tamar (v14). We are not allowed to look away. We may know what is about to happen, but the author slows the story down, much like when people slow down when passing an accident. Baking a loaf, even if they are ‘heart-shaped buns’ (in Hebrew), from scratch, takes time. It takes time to knead the dough, let it rise, and bake it. All the while Tamar is unaware of the trap her father has instructed her to step into. The story slows further with the sending out of the many attendants, the emptying of the room. The tension ratchets higher.
It is released brusquely with the forceful instruction – ‘lie with me’ (v11). The author intends for us to remember someone else who insisted they ‘lie with me’ – Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:7, 12). Which was also followed by a lengthy, rambling, stalling justification of why ‘this wicked thing’ cannot be, Joseph’s (Genesis 39:8-11)! But in this instance, the grasping violence of Potiphar’s wife was unsuccessful, because Joseph was stronger and he escaped. Tamar, being female, was not strong enough.
In both stories, lustful desire could not be overcome by reasonable words. In both cases Joseph and Tamar speak wisely but with no effect. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction… The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.” (Proverbs 1:7; 12:15) (NIVUK). An unwillingness to listen is the mark of the fool – with awful consequences.
The ‘heart-shaped buns’ Tamar baked were intended to restore Amnon to ‘wholeness’. They remained uneaten.
