Free Sunday School lesson for teens and young adults on one of the greatest rebels in the Bible: the price of rebellion using the King James Bible.
Begin lesson with famous sayings where students fill in the blanks:
You reap what you ______ (sow)
What goes around _________ __________ (comes around)
Sin has a price, and the cost is always much higher than you can afford. Your actions always have consequences that impact more than just you; you can’t throw a rock in a pond without causing some ripples.
Who are some famous rebels in the Bible? (Give your students a chance to respond)
– Cain
– Absalom
– Israel
– Devil
The Biblical rebel we are going to talk about in today’s lesson was a young man who had everything. Not only was he the most handsome man in the land (2 Samuel 14:25 KJV), but he was also a prince and his father’s favorite (2 Samuel 19:5-6 KJV).
We’re going to talk about Absalom.
So, why did Absalom rebel?
Why do any of us rebel?
He was bitter, and he thought that he deserved better.
1. A situation didn’t work out the way he wanted
2. He thought he could do a better job at being in charge
Do you ever feel that way? That your boss/parents/teachers don’t get it, and your life would be 1000x better if they would just let you do what you want?
Most of the time, our reasons for rebellion aren’t justified. Our parents actually know better than us. Older people have more life experience and can see the end of a road before it’s travelled.
However, overcoming rebellion against parents, teachers, etc. is easier than overcoming rebellion to God’s plan.
So many Christians have been to church, have read the Bible, and have learned the difference between right and wrong so many times, so why do we choose to do wrong anyway? It’s because, in that moment, we aren’t thinking about consequences, and if that thought does cross our mind, we think that we can be the exception.
The biggest lie the devil and your flesh will ever tell you is that you can get away with it.
Do you think drug addicts, porn addicts, and alcoholics took part in that stuff because they knew that they were going to be addicted? That’s why it’s important to stay away from those things to begin with.
Rebelling against God goes further than drugs, fornication, and lascivious living. Even Christians who are “living right” can be rebellious because they are bitter against God not working out a situation according to their plan.
Sometimes, we get the idea that we deserve better than what God has given us. That man cheated on his wife and embezzled money at his job yet has ten cars, five houses, and two yachts. That girl cheats on every assignment but still everyone loves her, and she’s so pretty. That guy is such a jerk, lies all the time, but all the girls and teachers are crazy about him. I try to live right, do right, treat everyone well, but why is my life still so hard?
When you think like this, you think that you know better than God.
You believe that life would be amazing if he just gave you everything you wanted – everything that you think you deserve.
An attitude like this is bitter and rebellious, and it will hurt you if you don’t get it taken care of. You have no idea how your life would be, what your attitude toward God would be, and where your life would end up if you got everything you wanted.
Just how a child doesn’t understand that eating cake and ice cream for every meal and playing video games for eight hours a day isn’t good for him or her, sometimes we don’t understand that certain things would ruin us.
Despite all this, there is an important lesson to learn if you are going to squash that root of bitter rebellion in your heart:
Life isn’t fair.
That’s Biblical.
Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, and he had the most unfair life imaginable. He could have had anything, but, as if to prove to us that it isn’t needed, he chose to be born into poverty, to live a life of ridicule and trials (John 8:41 KJV; Matthew 13:54-58 KJV; Luke 11:15 KJV), to not be handsome (Isaiah 53:2 KJV), and to die a horrible cruel death when he was the only man who did not deserve death (Matthew 27:42-43 KJV). That was unfair.
If Christ is to be our example, how can we expect to get everything we want in life?
In many ways, Absalom was the opposite to Christ: handsome, preferred, rich, and loved. Still, he’s gone down in history as one of the greatest rebels and failures in the Bible.
Why?
It wasn’t so much because he rebelled against his father King David, but because he rebelled against God.
Absalom’s story begins in 2 Samuel 13 KJV. (Read Absalom’s story prior to teaching this lesson.)
Let’s not pretend Absalom didn’t have a reason to be angry. He did. His sister was raped.
But, Absalom’s rebellious stage started much sooner than this. This just happened to be the final straw.
According to 2 Samuel 15:2-7 KJV, Absalom began stealing the hearts of the men of Israel since the start of David’s reign. David reigned for forty years, and Absalom was lying about no one listening to the problems of the people. After all, David listened to the “widow woman” sent by Joab in 2 Samuel 14 KJV. (We are approaching the Bible as God’s perfect word of God – forty is not an error for four, as many try to argue. Everything is in the word of God for a reason – Proverbs 30:5-6 KJV.)
For Absalom, the final straw was when David did nothing about Tamar’s rape.
This was not right. But, Absalom left God out of the equation. David was still God’s chosen king. Absalom thought he could get around what God wanted by getting all the people on his side.
Due to David’s own terrible sin regarding Uriah and Bathsheba, he felt he could not even discipline his own children when they did wrong. Because of David’s terrible mistake in not punishing Amnon (2 Samuel 13:21 KJV), Absalom was convinced that he could run the kingdom better.
Amnon would have reaped what he sowed, but Absalom didn’t want to wait on God.
Sin always gets you. It may not be immediate, and it may not be in this life (many people pay for their sins in hell), but God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18 KJV). Your sin will find you out (Numbers 32:23 KJV).
Absalom waited 2 full years for his father to do something (2 Samuel 13:23 KJV). He ran out of patience.
He was filled with a prideful anger – he wanted revenge, not only against Amnon, but also against David for doing nothing.
While many may see Absalom as justified in his anger (I do to an extent – I have two sisters of my own), Absalom ended up doing things just as terrible as Amnon and David in his rage. He raped ten of David’s concubines just to hurt his father’s reputation (2 Samuel 16:21-22 KJV). Those women did not deserve that, but when a person is bitter and rebellious, they will hurt anyone if it means hurting the person they are angry with.
Absalom is one of the greatest types of Satan and the Antichrist in the Bible.
He had nearly the entire kingdom behind him (2 Samuel 15:12-13 KJV), just how the Antichrist will have most of the world on his side (Revelation 13:7-8 KJV) but will still lose because won’t have God on his side (Revelation 19:19-20 KJV).
Despite Absalom’s rebellion, David wanted to save him. He probably blamed himself (just how Absalom blamed him), but Absalom wasn’t going to make it out of this alive.
In the Bible, hair is likened to a crown (Proverbs 16:31 KJV; 1 Corinthians 11:15 KJV). We already know that Absalom was handsome, but his most notable quality was his hair (2 Samuel 14:25-26 KJV). Absalom’s hair, like a crown, was a picture of his pride, and it was what got him killed. His hair was what got him caught in the tree and ultimately led to his death (2 Samuel 18:9-10 KJV). The Bible does warn, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18 KJV).
Joab was the one who killed Absalom.
He knew Absalom was David’s favorite (which was why he orchestrated that entire plot to bring Absalom home from Geshur (2 Samuel 14 KJV). However, after Absalom’s rebellion and Joab knowing that David wanted to make amends with his son, Joab, ever the political and military genius, knew it could spell trouble for his own ambitions. So, Joab had Absalom killed, despite it going against the direct orders of the king, and he knew that he could get away with it, too, because of David’s sin in murdering Uriah. Joab had been an accomplice.
(Again, this is a picture of David still paying for his sins. I plan to do a lesson soon on David and why God did not have him killed when clearly deserved it.)
Whether Joab would’ve killed him or not, Absalom would’ve paid for his rebellion.
The Bible has a lot to say about rebellion: it’s as the sin of witchcraft (1 Samuel 15:23 KJV), and those who are evil seek only rebellion (Proverbs 17:11 KJV).
How can we overcome our rebellious spirit?
Only by pride cometh contention (Proverbs 13:10 KJV). Be humble, and accept the fact that God knows what is best for you. No, you won’t get everything you want in this life. You won’t get what you “deserve,” and you should be thankful for that. After all, we deserve God’s wrath and punishment for our sins (Romans 6:23 KJV), but Christ’s sacrifice means we don’t have to get what we deserve: an eternity in hell (John 3:16 KJV).
Accepting God’s will isn’t as easy as deciding to no longer feel a certain way, especially if you have years’ worth of rebellion and bitterness rooted deep in your heart. Emotions don’t work that way. You have to take your relationship with God one day at a time: making the decision to read your Bible, pray, go to church, and grow your relationship, as well as avoiding things that could hinder your relationship (bad music, unclean shows/movies/videos, ungodly friends, etc.) Over time, that root of rebellion will grow weaker, and that bitterness will fade. (Romans 12:2 KJV; Philippians 4:6-7 KJV)
It isn’t an overnight process.
Absalom spent years fostering his feelings of rebellion before taking action. If you have spent a long time rebelling against God’s word and feeling bitter about what you think you deserve, it will likely take some time to heal. However, the best cure is prevention.
By reading the Bible and talking to God daily in prayer, you can foster a relationship that will strengthen you against rebellion and bitterness when temptations and troubles come into your life.
For more information on growing your relationship with God, look at this lesson on Why Prayer is Important for Christians.
If you enjoyed this Bible lesson about the one of the greatest rebels in the Bible: the price of rebellion, be sure to check out other lessons here.