Loner Or Liver

Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the ornamented robe she was wearing. She put her hand on her head and went away, weeping aloud as she went. Her brother Absalom said to her, Has that Amnon, your brother, been with you? Be quiet now, my sister; he is your brother. Don’t take this thing to heart. And Tamar lived in her brother Absalom’s house, a desolate woman. 2 Samuel 13: 19 – 20.

This picture in 2 Samuel 13: 1 - 20, has been viewed by most of us already, but we need to have a reminder and to meditate some more on this daughter of a king. The picture is sad, but it is a true picture of one who becomes a loner. Tamar, a beautiful princess, has a life that is going well. She is yet the virgin daughter of King David, waiting for the day when she will be married. At the moment, she is enjoying her un-taken days, wearing her richly ornamented robe; a happy, pleasant young woman. Then one day, in one experience, she has been made a changed person. One killing experience happens to her, and her life is changed forever. She has been cheated, defiled, disgraced, dishonoured and so very badly hurt. Yes, with one experience, this beautiful life becomes a loner and living dies.

This is still the life of the loner. Who is the loner? I am referring to many people, who have had an experience that has brought them to this kind of life, which is simply a death. For Tamar, it was the rape by her brother. For others, it may be another type of rape. You look at physical rape and see the damage it does, but there is psychological rape, emotional rape and spiritual rape even.

The truth is that I could go no further with this learning. I had to tell the Lord that this certainly made no sense to me. I asked Him, just how could this be? How can there be spiritual rape? I can see emotional and psychological rape, but how can spiritual rape be possible?

For a moment, let’s look at Tamar’s physical rape and identify some facts as are recorded in this experience. We are studying the mind of the rapist. It is the mind of love that turns to lust. It is the force of lust that drives such a mind to turn to trickery and cunning, to lure the one who is lusted after.

• It is Deceitful love. It is love that is poisoned by lust. It is deceived love that in turn deceives.

• It is Destructive love. It is the love that comes to destroy. The enemy of love only comes to please self, to gratify self, while destroying the one it professes to love. It does wicked things to the one it has captured, without mercy or consideration. There is no thought for the victim.

• It is Disgracing love. It only brings disgrace as the whole life of the person becomes so painfully ashamed, the very garment she has so proudly worn, she herself tears up. The beauty she possesses, she disfigures with ashes. A disgraceful time indeed.

• It is Disbanding love. Note, how after using her to fulfil his deceiving, lustful love, he literally kicks her out and she is disbanded. He abandons her. No amount of begging and pleading on her part, could appeal to this once professed love. Why? Because this love has now turned to hate. He hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her, and told her, get up and get out.

This is the experience, the unfair, cruel, heartless, wicked experience of Tamar, in her physical rape. How then does this happen in spiritual rape? How is there spiritual rape? Look at it with the love that comes to you with feigned needs. Lord! This is scary! But I know that it is true.

Sometimes, you are the target of many who see the Lord’s beauty and joy in you, and they want what you have. They want it though, to satisfy some lusting, to have, without the correct ways, to have by wicked clandestine ways. They become so sick in their selfish desires, that they really become totally affected. And so the scheming takes place. Loss of all spiritual beauty, joy, excitement and youthfulness of life, take place. You then become a Loner. You are cheated by that kind of love.

Death, any kind of death, which brings the type of loss and cheats you spiritually, is the death that rapes you. It takes your life. It robs you of the beauty, joy and so much more that you had. Yes, you continue to live, but you live as a brother in your brother’s house. Is not Jesus your Brother? Has He not seen your plight? Does He not show that He not just understands, but that He is offering you, life with Him? You accept all the comfort, understanding, compassion and sympathy He gives to you. You even accept His offer to spend the rest of your life in His house, but you live there as a Loner. You live a joyless, lonely, empty life, a missing life. The choice is yours now, no one else’s. It is not that which took your life that matters most to you, but the One who has seen you and has given you back life. Which will you choose? Whole Life or Broken Life?

Holy Lord God, thank You for our Brother Jesus, who has offered us life. Expose us Lord to stop feeling sorry for ourselves. Help us to stop blaming the different death-experiences in our lives, as reason for our Lonely Lives. Holy Spirit, help us to embrace the life Jesus offers in Him, so that we may turn and choose to be a Liver and not a Loner, anymore. There is death and there is life for all. Turn our hearts towards You, O Life, so that we may no longer hold death, regardless of which kind, as our forever-friend and companion. Amen!