A Bible story I never heard

This weekend I had the privilege of attending a womens conference at church on the topic of encouragement. During one of the workshops the speaker told us about a little known woman of the Bible...Ahinoam. Have you ever heard of her? I hadn't. I was so moved after hearing the story of this woman that I wanted to share it.

Ahinoam was a wife of David. We meet her in I Samuel 25:43. To set the scene we need to know that David is basically a renegade at this point. He was married to Saul's daughter Michal but Saul gave her to another man. David married Ahinoam and also a woman named Abigail (if you don't know Abigail's story you really must read I Samuel 25).
In 2 Samuel 2:1-4 we learn that the men of Judah make David their king. So Ahinoam goes from being the wife of a renegade to being the wife of the King of Judah. 2 Samuel 3:2 tells us that Ahinoam has a son, this is David's first born son. His name is Amnon. It is a very big deal to be the mother of the first born son. This basically means that Ahinoam is set for the rest of her life. She is the wife of the king and her son is the heir to the throne. Things are going well for Ahinoam.

But our lives often go in directions that we never expect and unfortunately for Ahinoam things were about to go from very good to very bad.
In I Samuel 30:1-6 David was thinking more about conquering cities than caring for his family and his wives Ahinoam and Abigail were taken captive by the Amalekites. Her husband put his own agenda and ambition before the good of his family. She must have been thinking, "What is my husband doing?" Eventually Ahinoam and Abigail are reunited with David but I am sure not without great pain and suffering.

Being the mother of the king's first born son was a great honor but Ahinoam's son Amnon's heart was evil. He was taken by the beauty of his half sister Tamar and wanted her for himself. He tricked her into coming to him and he raped her. This brought shame, disgrace and embarrassment to Ahinaom, to think that her son would do such a thing! Her heart must have been ripped out of her chest.

As bad as that must have been for Ahinoam, her suffering was not over. Tamar's brother Absalom was so enraged about what Amnon had done that he had him killed. She must have been filled with grief when her son committed that terrible act and now her grief is increased because she has lost her only child. She has lost everything.

After laying out the tragic story of Ahinoam our speaker asked "What do we say to Ahinaom?"
There are many women who have had their hearts ripped out. Who live with utter embarrassment. Who are weighed down by utter grief. If Ahinoam was my next door neighbor or a woman sitting behind me in the pew at church, her life just crumbing, one thing after another...What do I say to her? What if it's me?

Our speaker took us to Isaiah 12. He entitled it "Singing the song of praise in the midst of life"

You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.

2 “Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.”

3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 And you will say in that day:

“Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that his name is exalted.

5 “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

First, it was pointed out that the "You" in verse one is singular, it's the voice of one person crying out to God. In the midst of the trials of life we must turn to Christ. We must be reminded that God is not taking His wrath out on me. NO, He already took out His wrath on Jesus when he was on the cross! We must remind ourselves and the Ahinoams in our life of the glory and riches of God's grace.

Here's the part that really touched me, in verse 3 and 4 the word "you" is plural. Why is this important? Well, when thinking about a person who is hurting so deeply and feeling great despair they may say, "I understand that Christ took God's wrath for me...but I can not 'draw water from the wells of salvation'. I have no strength." The plural you is the Body of Christ. This is what we do. We drop her bucket in the well of salvation and together do the hard work of pulling it up for her, and with joy we do this. She can't do it. It's too much. We do it for her, we bring her the water.

It's the same when it comes to verse 4 and 5. The "you" is the Body of Christ. She may not have the strength to sing. She just can't do it, she has no voice. We will sing the praises of the Lord for her. We will call upon His name for her. We will sing to the Lord for her. This is what our church life is to be about.

I know I have not been able to share this story as eloquently as our speaker did yesterday but I hope the underlying message was conveyed clearly enough for your heart to be touched. The bottom line is that people are hurting more deeply than we know. We have all experienced times of embarrassment, pain and grief and there are people in our lives whose hearts are being ripped out by difficult circumstances, like Ahinoam. It is the responsibility of Christians to bring these hurting people to the cross, remind them that God's wrath was poured out on Christ, draw the water of salvation for them, and sing to the Lord for them.

And someday...they will sing again.