“See to it that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” Hebrew 12:15.

One of the things that my modest journey as a Christian has taught me is that the precepts of God are prescribed to us for our good. The purpose of the above verse is to avoid the consequence of bitterness. To understand how bitter roots can grow up to cause trouble for many including ourselves, we will zoom in on the story of Absalom.

Absalom was the most handsome man of Israel (2 Samuel 14:25) and from my understanding of his story, I can attest that this man had more than beauty. His capacity to mobilize key teams (skillful people and innocent people) essential to be successful in politics is evidence that he was also a charismatic man. Absalom has been able to convince excellent politicians like Ahithophel (the advisor of David), and he had been able to mobilize two-hundred innocents in Jerusalem to his goal (2 Samuel 15:10-12). His beauty added to his charisma could have led him to the top anywhere in politics.

However, this man let bitterness enter his heart, which led him to his destruction. Bitterness entered Absalom’s heart when Amnon slept with his sister Tamar. Even though Absalom encouraged his sister to forget that incident, the Bible said that he hated Amnon (2 Samuel 13:22). Indeed, two years later he killed Amon (2 Samuel 13:29).

Absalom’s revenge did not stop there. He had later planned to take the throne from his father. What a disgrace ! His bitterness prevented him from understanding that David is an anointed king and God had properly dealt with anyone who had tried to take the throne from him. Even though David ran away because he understood his son’s strategy was excellent, he called the one who anointed him King (2 Samuel 15:31). God replied by sending confusion between Ahithophel and Absalom, and they both died in the course of implementing their strategy. It is sad to notice that the two authors of the coup probably died because of their bitterness as some commentators state that Ahithophel was the grandfather of Bathsheba (2 Samuel 23:34, 2 Samuel 11:3) and might thus have engaged in this as a revenge.

Some of us had already killed our Amnon and are enjoying the pleasure which comes from that revenge. I pray that God forgives us and opens our eyes to prevent us from thinking about taking the throne of David which can easily kill us and cause trouble.