“The king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And thus he said as he walked, ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!'” (2 Sam 18:33).
David’s grief for Absalom provides us with a wonderful, though imperfect, picture of God’s infinite love for the people of this world. David, who loved Absalom so much, would have willingly died instead of his rebellious son. For the God of Israel so loved the world that he sent his only Son to die for rebels to make them his sons and daughters (John 1:12; 3:16). By meditating upon this story of this imperfect father’s love for his son, we begin to grasp the infinitely greater love of the God of Israel who not only wished he could have died in our place but took on flesh in the person of his Son and actually did (see John 1:1, 14).
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4-7).
