You remember Fabio, don’t you?  He donned the covers of romance novels for years.  You may remember him from the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” commercials.  He is the male model with the long flowing hair.

Turns out there’s an ancient Semitic Fabio.  He name is Absalom.

“ Now Absalom was praised as the most handsome man in all Israel. He was flawless from head to foot. ²⁶ He cut his hair only once a year, and then only because it was so heavy. When he weighed it out, it came to five pounds,” Samuel 14:26 NLT.

Locks of Love hit their jackpot every year with him.

Women fawned over him.

Men wanted to be him.

And, he didn’t get what he wanted.  Might have been the first time.   You see he wanted revenge and justice.  You see, he had a beautiful sister, Tamar.  In fact, she was so beautiful that her half-brother Amnon went crazy for her.  I think he may have been a little touched to start with.  Well, he forced himself on Tamar, and then he disgraced her by refusing to marry her.  Well, Mr. Male Model Prince Absalom wanted his father King David to handle this situation.  David did nothing.  A good looking young prince was used to getting what he wanted, so he took matters into his own hands and waited his time until he could kill Amnon.  He got what he wanted.

Pride.  It’s something we celebrate nowadays.  There’s all sorts of pride.  We even have pride parades.  It might surprise you to know that the Bible doesn’t speak of pride as good thing.

“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.,” I John 2:16.

Pride is saying that you’re more important than others.  That your will overrides God’s will.  Absalom had that kind of pride.  He took his brother’s life and it wasn’t Absalom’s place to do it.

After Mr. Jewish Fabio killed his brother, he left Jerusalem for a couple of years.  Finally, Joab helped him make his way back to town, and finally into the court of the King.

Then, Absalom set in play a four year plan to take over the kingdom.  The beautiful man started courting all Israel.  He stole their hearts with his appearance and words.  And, he rose against his father.

Through a turn of events that we could only describe as a “God thing,” Absalom spurned good military counsel and took the one that lead to his demise.  In fact, it lead to him being caught in a tree.  Guess what caught him.  Guess what lead to his death.  It was all those beautiful locks of hair.

His pride was his hair.  His pride was his death trap.

I wonder how many times the same can be said of us?

Well, what’s the secret to this?  How do we get out of this death trap?

Well, we accept the Word of God.  It tells us that we are beloved.  You see, the Son of God went to the tree so we don’t have to.

We can all be members of his royal family…but doing so involves humble service.  Like our humble King, we take up our crosses and even die for him, and we rise to glory in his kingdom.

Our baptism is a death.  It’s a burial.  It’s a resurrection.  You want to see the Christian life…look at the waters of baptism.  You submit to it.  You receive it.  And, God blesses you as you humble yourself in his sight.  He lifts you up to new life.

Like David, even when we sin, we turn to him in repentance and in mercy and grace he forgives.  We keep going and serving even through the heartbreak.  We will sing to him and serve him in humility.

And, you know what?

He raises us up.