Tamar

this is one of the most tragic stories of the bible...

Tamar was born the daughter of King David... how much better does life get than that... other than to be his wife... and as he had many wives.. maybe the daughter was the better role anyways... so she was a virgin.. she was beautiful... the ultimate life so we would think...

then she is told to go prepare food for her half brother Amnon... who is supposedly sick... she goes.. she prepares him food.. he wants her to take it into his bedroom and feed it to him... (first thought.. she was a remarkable woman to be willing to hand feed a grown man... )she apparently had no strange thoughts about this request.. she obeys him... he asks her to sleep with him... she logically asks him not to do this thing.. (as a woman.. she had no rights.. she could not stop it if he was determined..) she tells him to go to their father and that he would allow them to marry... he does not want to do this.. he wants her right now.. he rapes her... then.. she again begs him to marry her... he throws her out of the house..

after he has had her he hates her... isn't that about the most horrifying thing? he forces her to do something that she knows is wrong and then he hates her because he had no self control...

she goes to her brother Absaloms house and tells him what happened.. she never leaves his house again... she spends the rest of her days in sackcoth and ashes.. mourning.. because a man destroyed her and she had no control over it...

worse yet her father.. the king... while he was angry about it.. he did nothing to rectify the situation... according to jewish law he should have been forced to marry her... I don't know if that would have been better or worse... it would have been worse because he hated her because of his own shortcomings... it would have been better because she would not have to spend the rest of her life in guilt and shame and having never been given justice.. never had her worth restored to her... she was the daughter of one of the greatest kings of all time.. yet she is worth nothing because of the selfishness and greed of a man...

Father... whatever our situation is... whatever has been done to us.. whatever we have done to ourselves... allow us to see our value through your eyes instead of the eyes of men... change the men of this world.. cause them to stand up and take responsibility of their actions.. to commit to us.. to love us instead of lust us... to be pure and moral... show us our own value so that we do not allow our bodies to be the only value we see... the only attribute that we see as something we can give a man... cause us to see instead that our true value is in our spirit.. the spirit of God living within us.. allow us to only give away the God within us until a man commits to us... show us how to be upright and just.. how to be moral and pure... help us to be all that you have caused us to be.. in Jesus name I pray.. amen.amen.amen. thank you Lord.. I love you so much... truly Lord.. truly I do...