2 Samuel 16:22 – So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

Hello readers, hope you are going well today. I have been thinking a bit recently about how people experience evil in their lives from others… yet they end up the same. Many children who are abused… they end up sexual deviants themselves. We can go into the Bible to look at an example to help to understand why this happens. Because you’d think if you’ve been wronged, you wouldn’t wrong others. The jails are full of people who have been wronged, then gone and wronged others. But because you’ve been wronged… does that make it ok to wrong others? But in the Bible there is an example… a guy called Absalom, who was David’s son. Absalom had a sister called Tamar… and his sister was raped by his (and her) half brother, a bloke called Amnon. Although it was his sister that was really the one ultimately wronged… he took it very personally. Fair enough you could say. He was very upset at his dad David, who really did nothing about what had happened. Absalom looked after Tamar after this happened, and he in fact had a daughter called her name Tamar. He killed Amnon and tried killing his dad.

It’s a sad story, but let’s not get lost in sentiment. Absalom nursed resentment, bitterness, anger and revenge for many years and directed this at his dad. Absalom tried to usurp his dad as king, and wanted his dad… that same David, God’s anointed king of Israel… he wanted his own dad dead. When he rose up against David and David was forced to flee, just to show everyone how much he hated his dad, he went into his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel. So Absalom, you are upset about what happened to your sister, so to make it better, you do pretty much the same, if not in fact worse. It is logical to assume this was rape, it was not optional. Today many children are abused and unthinkable things done to them, yet they end up as homosexuals, yet they end up abusing others as they were. Why does this happen? Why when we are wronged, do we then do wrong? You’d think when someone does you wrong, that’d mean you don’t do others wrong like you’ve been wronged?

There is of course an answer to all this. The answer lies with what you do with the wrong. If you don’t take yourself being wronged to Jesus Christ, you’ll end up the same. There is truly no solution to life’s wrongs and injustices outside of Jesus Christ. Sin is like a disease, it infects others, it is no wonder the Bible pictures sin as leprosy. While Absalom didn’t start out in the wrong, he died in the wrong. Absalom became more than what he hated to begin with. What happened rotted him out inside. We know he was a beautiful man on the outward, but inside was very ugly. How the appearance can mask the true identity? Absalom’s story starts with family tragedy heavily involving him, he was the one who looked after his sister, who’s life was completely shattered through no fault of her own. So why did he end up forcing his father’s concubines, in much the same manner his sister had been forced? It’s amazing how when you are hard done by, if you don’t do something with it, it can turn into something… it can turn you into that same monster. Sin recruits sin. It’s not your fault to have evil done to you, but what you do with that evil will play a huge role in how you turn out.

Why did Absalom end up hating his dad so much? Because his dad, although he got very angry, really did nothing about what Amnon did. Age old favoritism… compromising on what should have been done because Amnon was his son. Classic isn’t it? So yes, what Amnon did was wrong. What happened to Tamar… unimaginable. Bad things happen to innocent people… that’s the reality of living in a sin cursed world. So it’s easy to talk about things. It can be hard to let go of evil done to yourself at the foot of the cross. But Jesus is the ultimate example of someone hard done by. Look at someone like Joseph in the Bible as compared to Absalom. Joseph was sold into a life of slavery by his brothers. Don’t think that didn’t hurt, it did. Many years later Joseph was in a position to get them back, but he didn’t. Because he had given his bitterness, his resentment, his anger… the wrong that had been done to him… to God. Unfortunately for many children of the world, they’ve got noone who can deal with what they’ve been through. Evil done to them corrupts and defiles them. They don’t have someone who can take it and exchange it for healing and peace and power over it.

There’s a person, Jesus Christ, who knows what injustice, who knows what evil, who knows what pain is like. Sin needs to be dealt with. If you leave it in your life, even what someone has done to you… it can corrupt you. Something that wasn’t your fault can become your fault. You know, when you are born again because you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, that new person in you doesn’t sin, and cannot sin. God gives you power over the evil that may have been done to you, he gives you grace to deal with life. True salvation is power over sin, power that an unbeliever does not have. Power to not be bound and ruled by things like resentment and bitterness. 1 John 5:18 – We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. The wicked one cannot touch you when you saved, you are set free. The title deed to you soul has been relinquished by the Pharaoh of this world. You can have evil things done to you, that doesn’t defile you. But what comes forth from your own heart is what defiles you, and so while many people have gone through things that were not their fault, they somehow turn out terrible. They never brought their burden to Christ, they never took what had happened to Jesus. They’ve quite simply got no solution to evil.

So the title of this blog was “when you’re wronged ends up as you’re wrong”. There can be things in life which are not fair, which you didn’t deserve, which noone deserves, which are unimaginable. And you know what, they aren’t your sin. But what you do next, that might be when it becomes you being in the wrong. Try dealing with what happened in your own strength, you might just end up corrupted. Satan wanted to corrupt Job by bringing evil upon his life. Yet it didn’t corrupt Job. Because Job had faith in God. Satan wants to destroy lives. This whole world is a product of his character, a character is full of lies and deceit and murder. Look at this world, that same world that the Bible says lieth in wickedness… it is full of pain, suffering, exploitation, selfishness, lust, manipulation and on and on. We live in an evil world, we were born into it. We need God, we need his Son Jesus Christ, in order to deal with what happens here. Sin is like leaven for a reason, it corrupts everything. David’s family was a mess because of his adulterous murderous affair with Bathsheba… the wife of a faithful soldier in David’s army. Sin spread like wildfire through his family. Stop the leprosy spreading. There’s no record of Absalom dealing with what happened God’s way. So while what happened wasn’t his fault, and it was awful… what happened next, then became his fault. And he ended up really just doing what caused him to be so full of hatred and bitterness to begin with.

You know that to begin with, you’re born in sin… when it wasn’t even your fault. You got it from your dad, who got it from his, who got it from his. You were born with a nature to sin. So what you going to do about it? Complain? Blame God? Just carry on the sin like Cain’s sons and sons sons did? Jesus Christ is the light of the world… everything else is darkness. If you need a light when you are in so much darkness, go to the cross. Go to the God man who endured rejection, betrayal and injustice… the one who bore the curse of sin for us. He in exchange washes us clean from the filth of this world, he gives us the power to be able to rise above this horrible world. He gives us grace to deal with all that life throws at us. Job endured a lot of evil… it wasn’t his fault… yet here he is sitting in the ashes of a complete trainwreck of a life. Why…. why… WHY? Satan wanted to corrupt Job. Imagine if because of this Job had turned into a wicked man… but he didn’t, because he took it to God. Cast it all at Jesus’ feet. He can fix the mess. When you are wronged, it doesn’t need to turn you into someone who is doing other people wrongly. Do you want to become the person you hate to begin with? Look at all that Absalom did… how did it all go so wrong? He had no Lord Jesus Christ in his life. There’s a true salvation out there which is a new birth, a new person. It won’t make getting wronged any easier, it won’t make the realities of life any less bitter… but it’ll be a new person who is an overcomer… because he overcame the world… it’ll be new person who doesn’t want to sin anymore… because he had no sin… it’ll be a new person who Satan cannot touch… because he defeated Satan completely.

You know what the saddest part is… when someone else’s sin causes you to go to hell. When someone else’s sin turns you into an Absalom… not a Joseph. How many people reject the truth, reject Jesus Christ, because of someone else’s behaviour. You’ll blame God, even though it’s because we live in a sin cursed world of our making? And really many just find it convenient to blame, because really they just want to do their evil deeds because they love evil. Satan will use things and people like Absalom’s friend because he wants to destroy you. He doesn’t want you to be saved. He wants to corrupt you. Why let him win? The wicked one toucheth him not the verse said above… but Satan really made a mess of Absalom’s life. Is getting wronged going to make you curse God with your life… with your dying breath… as Job’s wife told him to do? Is it blame God time? Even though man is where man is by man’s choice. It’s God who extends a way out of this disaster. Only in Jesus Christ can evil be turned to good. This is why people turn out so bad. Because they don’t have Jesus Christ. Joseph said to his brothers… you meant it for evil… but God meant it for good. This can become your reality.

Romans 8:37 – Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Romans 8:38 – For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Romans 8:39 – Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus said… John 16:33 – These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. Tribulation is in this world, that’s what this world has for all of us. But Jesus has overcome the world. How sad is it, because of someone else’s sin, to end up like Absalom did. How sad to have a life’s fire started all because you couldn’t take the wrong to God. Look how Absalom ended up. Are you going to let your whole life be defined and run and ruled by what someone has done to you? Are you going to let that take you to hell? Are you going to let that rob you of forgiveness and peace and joy and rest… and eternal life that is found in Christ? Absalom let this wrong that happened to Tamar define not just his life, but his eternity. It turned him into a monster. The Bible records his life, so we can not follow his path. What happened to Tamar was terrible, but who Absalom became and what Absalom did… who’s fault is that? People live whole lives blaming others. We like to spend a life blaming and excusing and justifying… but is there going to be any excuse for you at judgement who refused Jesus Christ? Don’t let yourself become yet another casualty of when you’re wrong… turns into you being in the wrong. Will evil set the tone for your life and existence? Or will you find the answer in Jesus Christ… who is the way, the truth, and the life.

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