2 SAMUEL 18

Outside of Jesus’s cry of abandonment on the cross, this chapter contains, perhaps, the most heart-wrenching cry in the Bible: "O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you—O Absalom, my son, my son!" (vs 33) Sure, at first you might think any father would be devastated over the loss of a child. But this wasn’t your average child. Absalom wasn’t a good boy. In fact, when he was killed, he had one goal in mind: to murder his father.

So, how could David grieve like this? The same way a brokenhearted God could cry in Hosea 11:8—"How can I give you up? How can I let you go? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused." True love is not altered by the response of the beloved. If true love is scorned, it does not retaliate against the one who scorned it. Instead, it grieves for the one it lost. That’s how David could say, "If only I had died instead of you." It didn’t matter that Absalom was out to kill him, David still loved him with an unconditional love.

God is the same way. If David could be such a father even though he was a sinful human being, how much more is God a tenderhearted father! And when He is scorned, He does not retaliate against the one who scorned Him. Instead, He grieves over the one who is lost. And, as David said, He would much rather it be Him who experienced death than us.

In fact, that’s what the cross was all about. By dying, Jesus revealed the truth about God and the truth about sin and death. It is this truth that sets us free and heals the damage done by sin. It is by Jesus’s death that we have the opportunity to live. But even if we are out to kill Him, God doesn’t want us to die any more than David wanted Absalom to die. And, in the end, if we are destroyed by our sin, God will cry, "Oh my child, my child! How can I let you go?!"