II SAMUEL 14:1-24 AND I KINGS 20:35-43 TWO PARABLES TO KINGS

Woman of Tekoa Parable to King David (2 Samuel 14:1-24)

This is a similar to Nathan's words to David but a much less familiar case in which the king is convicted by a parable told by someone who was sent to him. In both cases, the parable was prompted by a sexual impropriety followed by a murder. However, in this case it was David's adviser Joab who was behind the story, not God, and the murderer was David's son Absalom who had killed his half-brother Amnon for raping his sister. Absalom was on the run because he was facing a murder charge. Joab, for his own motives, gets a wise woman to go to David in disguise with a fictitious story to convince him to allow Absalom to come back to town without being punished as he deserved.

Like Nathan, she devises a parable that has close similarities to what has just happened, and David gives an appropriate judgment. After this in verse 13, again like Nathan, she tells David: “Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in giving this decision the king convicts himself. You will be condemned with the same judgment you give to others.” These words should remind us of Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount: Judge not lest you be judged with the judgment you make. (Matthew. 7:2) The meaning is apparently, “Why have you not forgiven Absalom and let him return? After all, he is the heir to the throne.” David goes with his feelings toward Absalom and allows him back into town, with disastrous consequences.

Dale Davis (2 Samuel) points out the major difference between these two parables: “Nathan's parable was designed to rouse the king's conscience as against his feelings, the woman of Tekoah's, as prompted by Joab, to rouse his feelings as against his conscience.” By the way, you would have thought that David would have learned his lesson after the first parable and not fallen for the second one, but that is the power of parables.

Prophet to King Ahab (I Kings 20:35-43)

This is the third OT parable told to a king, but it involves a much worse king, Ahab. The background here is the fact that Ben-Hadad's army had just been defeated by the Israelites because they had bad-mouthed God and were devoted for utter destruction. But Ben-Hadad himself escaped and actually went to King Ahab of Israel and asked to be spared. Ahab agreed for the promise of some economic gain.

The story itself begins in a very strange way with a prophet of God asking one of his company to hit him in the face. The first man refused and was punished harshly; so of course the second man he asked readily complied. The prophet then bandaged himself up and acted like a wounded soldier. In other words, he disguised himself just as the Wise Woman of Tekoa had. His story to the king was that he had been asked to guard a prisoner but had accidentally let him escape. So he asked the king for mercy. The king basically replies, “Sorry, you have to pay the penalty.” Then the prophet takes off his disguise and says, “Thus says the LORD, 'Because you have let the man go whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall be given for his life, and your people for his people.'” In an interesting contrast to David's response to the last two parable, the story concludes in verse 43, “The king of Israel set out toward home, resentful and sullen.” Sort of like the response of the Pharisees to Jesus' parables.

Well, these three parables are unique among all the parables in the Bible in that the listeners were fooled into thinking some real event was being described rather than a fictional story.