Out of the doom and gloom of the people’s failed king, we see hope rising in God’s promised king.
2 Samuel 3:22-39
22 Just then David’s men and Joab returned from a raid and brought with them a great deal of plunder. But Abner was no longer with David in Hebron, because David had sent him away, and he had gone in peace. 23 When Joab and all the soldiers with him arrived, he was told that Abner son of Ner had come to the king and that the king had sent him away and that he had gone in peace.
24 So Joab went to the king and said, ‘What have you done? Look, Abner came to you. Why did you let him go? Now he is gone! 25 You know Abner son of Ner; he came to deceive you and observe your movements and find out everything you are doing.’
26 Joab then left David and sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the cistern at Sirah. But David did not know it. 27 Now when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into an inner chamber, as if to speak with him privately. And there, to avenge the blood of his brother Asahel, Joab stabbed him in the stomach, and he died.
28 Later, when David heard about this, he said, ‘I and my kingdom are for ever innocent before the Lord concerning the blood of Abner son of Ner. 29 May his blood fall on the head of Joab and on his whole family! May Joab’s family never be without someone who has a running sore or leprosy[a] or who leans on a crutch or who falls by the sword or who lacks food.’
30 (Joab and his brother Abishai murdered Abner because he had killed their brother Asahel in the battle of Gibeon.)
31 Then David said to Joab and all the people with him, ‘Tear your clothes and put on sackcloth and walk in mourning in front of Abner.’ King David himself walked behind the bier. 32 They buried Abner in Hebron, and the king wept aloud at Abner’s tomb. All the people wept also.
33 The king sang this lament for Abner:
‘Should Abner have died as the lawless die?
34 Your hands were not bound,
your feet were not fettered.
You fell as one falls before the wicked.’And all the people wept over him again.
35 Then they all came and urged David to eat something while it was still day; but David took an oath, saying, ‘May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets!’
36 All the people took note and were pleased; indeed, everything the king did pleased them. 37 So on that day all the people there and all Israel knew that the king had no part in the murder of Abner son of Ner.
38 Then the king said to his men, ‘Do you not realise that a commander and a great man has fallen in Israel this day? 39 And today, though I am the anointed king, I am weak, and these sons of Zeruiah are too strong for me. May the Lord repay the evildoer according to his evil deeds!’
King Saul is dead and his son Ish-Bosheth is a weak image of his father as king; you can almost hear the refrain from the book of Judges ‘In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.’. All seems doom and gloom. But David, as King of Judah, is waiting in the wings to take his place as king of Israel. It appears imminent that God’s promise to David will be fulfilled: “By my servant David I will rescue my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and from the hand of all their enemies.”
But not everyone believes the Lord! In this passage, we see Joab acting out his own desire for revenge and then trying to justify his actions. He says it was to protect David from Abner’s spying, which was intended to prevent David from becoming King of Israel. If David was not King, he could not be the rescuer of the people of God. However, David is quick to recognise this wrong and make atonement before the Lord. David honours God by waiting on His timing to fulfil His promises. The people of Israel are pleased to see that David will be a worthy king and the feeling of HOPE begins.
In this passage I see that there are always consequences from wrong actions supposedly done for the ‘right’ reasons; such as saying we are advancing the kingdom of God. Sometimes we need to stop and reflect if what we are doing is really right in the eyes of God. God does not need us to act for Him, but to listen and allow the Holy Spirit to work through us to honour Him. He has rescued us from our sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus. All he does will be done in His good and perfect time. That is our HOPE.
Head: Think about a time you have justified an action in God’s name, when it was really just fulfilling your own selfish desire. Think about a time when you allowed the Holy Spirit to work through you, following Jesus command to love one another as He loved us. What were the consequences of each action?
Heart: Rejoice that you have a king who has rescued you and meets your heart’s deepest longings and hope, so you don’t have to depend on your own actions to save yourself.
Hands: Repent before God and ask forgiveness for when we don’t wait for Him but follow our own selfish desires which end in heartache and not honouring to Jesus, our true king, who died so that we might live.
Prayer: Father God, thank you that we don’t have to behave like the rest of the world, but we can rejoice in the hope that Jesus brings in atoning for our sin, through His death and resurrection. Amen
A song to listen to: Living Hope
Sandra Hinrichsen
Living Church Creek Road
