Table of Contents
Examples of family turning against family
A family is a group of persons united by the ties of marriage, blood, or adoption, constituting a single household. Normally, the strongest bond of love comes from the family. The family is the social group with the strongest ties and its members protect and care for one another in times of sickness, pain, danger, poverty, etc. – the family is there for one another. However, sometimes, for some reason, the family turns against itself. The Bible has many records of family members turning against or destroying one another.
Cain turned against Abel
Cain and Abel were the first two sons of Adam and Eve and were brothers. When they became adults, Cain became a farmer and Abel a shepherd. Sometime later, they offered sacrifices to God out of devotion. Cain picked some foodstuffs and sacrificed it to God. However, Abel, by faith, chose one of his best livestock and offered it to God. God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and rejected Cain’s.
For this reason, Cain took offense to a great extent that he became angry and jealous of Abel, leading him to bear murderous intentions for him. One day, he talked Abel into accompanying him to the field and, while they were there, he killed Abel. Cain became the first accursed person among humans for, later, God came to curse him to suffer many troubles. None of Cain’s descendants ever survive to this day. Reference Genesis 4:1-15
9 sons of Jacob turned against Joseph
Joseph was the 11th son of Jacob. Both Joseph and Benjamin, the 12th son, were the children Rachel bore for Jacob. The eldest of Jacob’s children is Reuben. Reuben and Joseph were the only brothers who did not partake in the selling of Joseph into slavery. This act of betrayal was committed by nine of Joseph’s brothers namely Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, and Zebulun.
Joseph was the most loved child of his father Jacob. He was envied and hated by his brothers for being the beloved son. Their envy and hatred heightened when Joseph told them two of his dreams of his brothers bowing to him, predicting that he would be the greatest among his brothers. At this point, they couldn’t stand him anymore.
One day, Jacob sent Joseph to Dothan to his brothers who were grazing the flock. When he got there, his brother seized him and threw him into a cistern. Later, when they saw some Ishmaelite traders, they sold him to them. And the traders took him to Egypt where they sold him to Potiphar. (Genesis 37:12-36)
Abner turned against Ishbosheth
After the death of King Saul, there was a struggle as to who should rule over Israel as king. Though by prophecy and Samuel’s anointing, David should be the one to replace Saul, it was overlooked. Then Abner, King Saul’s cousin and the main commander of the army, took Isbosheth the son of Saul, and made him the king of Israel. However, the tribe of Judah hailed David as their king. And there was a prolonged war between David and Ishbosheth.
Along the line, for whatever reason, Ishboshet falsely accused Abner of having an affair with Rizpah who was Saul’s concubine (2Sa 3:7). This false accusation greatly offended Abner such that he turned against King Isbosheth to remove him from the throne for David to take it. He told Ishboshet to his face that he had switched to David’s side and would henceforth support David to make him king over all of Israel. Then he communicated with the elders of the tribes of Israel to accept David as king and he arranged a meeting with David (2Sa 3:12). Reference 2 Samuel 3:6-21
Absalom turned against Amnon
King David had eight wives. One of them called Ahinoam gave birth to Amnon and another one called Maachah gave birth to Absalom and Tamar. Therefore, Amnon, Absalom, and Tamar were siblings. Unfortunately, David’s eldest son Amnon raped his sister Tamar, after which he treated her shamefully by throwing her out of his house (2Sa 13:1-22). Tamar went to live with Absaloam and he consoled her (2Sa 13:20).
Since that incident, Absalom bore hatred against Amnon. However, he said nothing to Amnon, good or bad. Two years later, Absalom’s plan to avenge his sister was ready to hatch. He invited all his siblings to a party where they ate and drank, enjoying themselves. Absalom waited for Amnon to get drunk and then he ordered his servants to kill him and they did it right in the presence of his other siblings. This threw the party into commotion and his siblings fled for their lives. Reference 2 Samuel 13:23-39
Absalom turned against David
After Absalom killed his brother Amnon, he fled to Geshur and stayed with Talmai son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur for three years (2Sa 13:38). David missed Absalom and with Joab’s help, he brought him back from Geshur to Jerusalem (2Sa 14:23). With time, Absalom undermined King David’s government and stole the heart of the people. He also managed to win some of David’s faithful men such as Ahitophel. Having the army on his side, he staged a coup to dethrone King David, his father. For his sake, David abandoned Jerusalem and fled for his life with his supporters.
Absalom and his forces took the city of Jerusalem. He committed the abomination of sleeping with his ten of his father’s concubines. Later, war ensued between David and Absalom. Their armies fought in the forest and Absalom lost the battle. Absalom’s death came from the hands of his own cousin Joab who thrust three spears through Absalom’s heart while he was caught up alive in the branches of a tree (2Sa 18:14). Then 10 of Joab’s armor-bearers surrounded Absalom and killed him (2Sa 18:15). David bitterly mourned for Absalom. Reference 2Sa 18:1-18
Joab turned against Amasa
Amasa and Joab were cousins because Amasa’s mother Abigail and Joab’s mother Zeruiah were sisters. They were also sisters of King David. When Absalom staged a coup against David and war broke out between them, Amasa served as the commander of Absalom’s army (2Sa 17:25), whereas Joab was the commander of David’s army. In that war, Absalom was defeated and killed by Joab. With the death of Absalom, Amasa switched sides to serve David as commander of the army. Soon after the war, Abishai, Joab, and their troops went off to seek and capture some rebels whose leader was Sheba.
Amasa, trying to help them fight the rebels, followed them and caught up with them at the big rock in Gibeon. There, when Joab saw Amasa coming, he came toward Amasa and said, “Amasa, my brother, how are you?” Then Joab held Amasa’s beard with his right hand so that he could greet him with a kiss. Unknown to Amasa, Joab took a dagger with his left hand and stabbed Amasa in the stomach, and his insides spilled out on the ground. Then Amasa fell to the ground, bleeding, and rolling in his own blood in the middle of the road. Finally, he died. A soldier dragged Amasa off the road and covered him with a blanket. Joab later paid for his sins at the hands of King Solomon (1Ki 2:5; 1Ki 2:32). Bible Reference 2 Samuel 20:7-13
King Jehoram turned against his brothers
Jehoshaphat had many sons who were Jehoram, Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah (2Ch 21:2). Before Jehoshaphat died, he organized his house well to ensure that there would not be a power struggle after his death. Therefore, apart from Jehoram, Jehoshaphat gave his sons many gifts of silver and gold and articles of value, as well as fortified cities in Judah, but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was his firstborn son (2Ch 21:3).
After the death of Jehoshaphat, Jehoram succeeded him. Jehoram was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for 8 years (2Ch 21:5). Because his wife was Athaliah the daughter of Ahab, he forsook the Lord and practiced idol worship just like the house of Ahab. Hence, he did evil in the eyes of the Lord (2Ch 21:6).
When Jehoram took over after his father and established himself firmly over the kingdom, he had all his brothers Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah and some officials of his kingdom killed with the sword. His intentions for doing that were not clearly expressed. Probably, with the evil advice of his wife, coupled with his own paranoia, he committed such an atrocity. Later, God said that these brothers were better persons than Jehoram (2Ch 21:13) and He inflicted Jehoram with a fatal disease as punishment. Reference 2 Chronicles 21:1-20
Athaliah turned against her grandchildren
Because of the friendship between King Jehoshaphat and King Ahab, Jehoshaphat had his son Jehoram marry the daughter of Ahab. Her name was Athaliah and her mother was Queen Jezebel. Like her mother, she was exceptionally evil. Athaliah had a son with Jehoram called Ahaziah. When Ahaziah succeeded his father, he reigned only for a year and was murdered by Jehu. Soon after his death, Athaliah wanted to seize power and rule.
So she orchestrated the killing of all the sons of Ahaziah – her own grandchildren – so that there would be no heir left to take the throne (2Ki 11:1). Though she succeeded, one of them called Joash survived the purge. He and her nurse were hidden by Jehosheba the brave sister of King Ahaziah in the bedroom and later taken to hide in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Seven years later, Athaliah was deposed and killed and Joash succeeded her at age seven. Reference 2 Kings 11:1-3
Judas Iscariot turns against Jesus
Though Jesus was not biologically related to most of his disciples, the bond between them was even stronger than the family bond. As for Jesus, His disciples were His real family. He even once said that His mother and siblings are those who do the will of God and such also were His disciples (Mt 12:50). Jesus had twelve disciples whom he related to as a family. One of them called Judas Iscariot, who had greed as his weakness and was stealing from Jesus, turned against Him, influenced by his own greed for money and Satan’s manipulation.
Judas Iscariot went to the Jewish authorities and talked with them to give him money so that he could betray Jesus. They paid him 30 silver pieces (Mt 26:15). During the night of Jesus’s arrest, He and His disciples were in the Garden of Gethsemane when Judas Iscariot arrived with guards whom the Jewish leaders had dispatched. To identify Jesus to them, Judas Iscariot walked up to Jesus and kissed him and Jesus was arrested (Mr 14:44). His arrest was the first of the series of events that led to His death on the cross. Later, Judas Iscariot, when he realized what he had done, hanged himself (Mt 27:5).
Conclusions
From the examples above, we learn that, from times past up to this day, it is a common thing for family members to turn against one another and such occurrences can lead to the loss of life. The internal conflicts in a family are often fueled by bitterness, hatred, envy, and unforgiveness as we can see in the Bible. With the Bible at our disposal, we, believers of today, have the chance to do better than the people of the past for we can learn valuable lessons from their failures to guard against hatred, envy, unforgiveness, and the likes that do havoc to the family.