Catholics see an amazing connection between David, God’s chosen King of Israel, and his son. Absalom, with God and His Son, Jesus. And, us!
Today’s Reading (2 Samuel: 18:9-10, 14, 24-25, 30-19-3) tells us that David’s son, Absalom, rebelled against his father and tried to take the Kingdom. David was driven away. Absalom’s army tried to defeat his father’s forces, led by David’s commander, Joab.
Joab ignored David’s order to keep Absalom alive. When Absalom galloped his mule away from Joab’s men, his hair got tangled in the branches of a terebinth tree. Joab took three spears and “thrust for the heart of Absalom, still hanging from the tree alive.”
Absalom is a prophecy of what happens to those who reject Jesus and His Church! They are all left hanging when their long hair (symbolizing vain, earthly concerns) gets them tangled in a “terebinth tree” as they flee from the Judgment of God.
When enemies like Joab, from high places in their communities, find the Absaloms of their age caught up in their sins, they would rather “thrust a spear into their hearts” than allow them to seek forgiveness and restoration.
Another Prophecy! Those who hurt or kill neighbors to help themselves, as unrepentant abortionists, are destroyed by their own self-righteousness. When David was restored, one of his dying orders to his son Solomon, the new king: “Kill Joab!”
A question that only Catholics ask! “Was the cross of Jesus and the spear the Roman soldier Longinus thrust into His heart made of wood from ‘terebinth trees’?”
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Today’s Psalm 86:1-6 is another Prophecy that tells Catholics how we should live! “Listen, Lord, and answer me… Incline Your ear and answer me, for I am afflicted and poor… Keep my life for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in You. You are my God… Have mercy on me, O Lord, for to You I call all the day…Gladden the soul of your servant… and attend to the sound of my pleading.”
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “Prophecies that Catholics see / keep us with
God for eternity.”
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