2 Samuel 13:15 Then Amnon hated her with very great hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her
Amnon fell in love with his half-sister Tamar and was so tormented that he made himself ill because of her. Though at first it seemed impossible for him to have her, Jonadab, a very crafty man, counselled him on what to do. So Amnon pretended to be sick, and requested his father, King David, to have Tamar come over to cook for him. After Tamar had done so, she had her send everyone away and then he forcefully took her to bed. Not unsurprisingly however, it turns out, as we have read in the Scripture above, that after Amnon had raped his sister Tamar, he now hated her more than he had loved her.
At some points in our lives, as I myself would personally bear testimony, we torment ourselves with various passions and terrible longings; we lose our ease and our peace, feeling that our lives would turn out better and happier only if we finally got hold of a position, money, or like Amnon, ‘our Tamar.’ Those dating, knowing that fornicating is sin, may yet nurse the fantasy of what sleeping with their partner with whom they are not yet married would be like. In C. S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew, we meet the White Witch, who ate of the fruit that wasn’t hers to eat, for she had not received it from Aslan’s hand as Digory did. “…its smell”, Aslan tells Digory, “which is joy and health and life to you, is death and horror and despair to her.” She had longed for it just as Eve had done when “she saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6) But after having what they desired, then followed despair.
If we insist, we really will get what it is that we want and desire, but that thing will not always make us happy. Whatever we desire that is outside or contrary to Gods will, and that we take without his sanction or against his command bring us none of the joy or satisfaction it promises, or that we imagine or expect it to. We will in the end find that we now hate Tamar more than we had loved her.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, Thank you for the encouragement and comfort that we have in reading your Word in Psalms 84:11, that you withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly. Many of us do indeed find ourselves assailed by longings that are sinful and disgusting, Lord do not give us over to our wills and desires. No joy is there to be had in disobeying you. Deliver us from the evil one, and from ourselves. Amen.
“Child”, he replied, “that is why all the rest are now a horror to her. That is what happens to those who pluck and eat fruits at the wrong time and in the wrong way. The fruit is good, but they loathe it ever after.”