May 25, 2015
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

David Stays Behind

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Opening Prayer

Loving Father, incline my heart toward You today. As I seek You in Your Word, I know You will find me.

Read 2 Samuel 18:1-18

For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

[1] David mustered the men who were with him and appointed over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. [2] David sent out his troops, a third under the command of Joab, a third under Joab’s brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and a third under Ittai the Gittite. The king told the troops, “I myself will surely march out with you.” [3] But the men said, “You must not go out; if we are forced to flee, they won’t care about us. Even if half of us die, they won’t care; but you are worth ten thousand of us. It would be better now for you to give us support from the city.” [4] The king answered, “I will do whatever seems best to you.” So the king stood beside the gate while all his men marched out in units of hundreds and of thousands. [5] The king commanded Joab, Abishai and Ittai, “Be gentle with the young man Absalom for my sake.” And all the troops heard the king giving orders concerning Absalom to each of the commanders. [6] David’s army marched out of the city to fight Israel, and the battle took place in the forest of Ephraim. [7] There Israel’s troops were routed by David’s men, and the casualties that day were great-twenty thousand men. [8] The battle spread out over the whole countryside, and the forest swallowed up more men that day than the sword. [9] Now Absalom happened to meet David’s men. He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s hair got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair, while the mule he was riding kept on going. [10] When one of the men saw what had happened, he told Joab, “I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree.” [11] Joab said to the man who had told him this, “What! You saw him? Why didn’t you strike him to the ground right there? Then I would have had to give you ten shekels of silver and a warrior’s belt.” [12] But the man replied, “Even if a thousand shekels were weighed out into my hands, I would not lay a hand on the king’s son. In our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’ [13] And if I had put my life in jeopardy-and nothing is hidden from the king-you would have kept your distance from me.” [14] Joab said, “I’m not going to wait like this for you.” So he took three javelins in his hand and plunged them into Absalom’s heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree. [15] And ten of Joab’s armor-bearers surrounded Absalom, struck him and killed him. [16] Then Joab sounded the trumpet, and the troops stopped pursuing Israel, for Joab halted them. [17] They took Absalom, threw him into a big pit in the forest and piled up a large heap of rocks over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled to their homes. [18] During his lifetime Absalom had taken a pillar and erected it in the King’s Valley as a monument to himself, for he thought, “I have no son to carry on the memory of my name.” He named the pillar after himself, and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side” (Psa. 3:6). A psalm of David, when he fled from his son Absalom. David trusted in God in the face of adversity.

Joab and Absalom feature here, with David obediently staying behind. David, with his loyal troops (mainly from the southern tribes of Judah), has left Jerusalem to avoid fighting in the city and has crossed the Jordan to a desert settlement. Absalom, with his troops from the northern tribes of Israel, has already made a poor tactical decision as he waits to fight. David stays behind because, if he were killed, Absalom would be the victorious heir to the throne. David may well be haunted by Nathan’s prediction of the consequences of his catastrophic sins (12:10-12). He may love this son, but he has made little attempt to mend their broken relationship. Now he gives his army an impossible command.

David’s side wins a decisive victory and Absalom dies. But this dashing figure, whose beautiful hair (14:25-26) catches in a tree (9), does not die easily. In this dialogue we learn something of the murky moralities of war. The soldier knows that if he kills Absalom no one–least of all Joab–will protect him from David’s anger. So Joab takes the killing on himself but makes sure he’s not alone in the act. He knows how much David cares for his son, but he also knows that David would be in real trouble if Absalom were to survive.

Life is messy–some of the time. By our own bad judgments, or deliberate fault, we make problems for ourselves and others. At work with difficult or incompetent colleagues, or in the family with stressful relationships, we are sometimes the cause and sometimes the victim of complications. But the Lord is at work, changing us, convicting us, and leading us to repentance and a new start. Like David, however, we live with the consequences.

Apply

What do you make of these “murky moralities of war”? What life lessons can you take from all this?

Closing prayer

Dear Lord, all this is so sad. David’s sin led to dreadful fallout. Burn these lessons on my heart so that I might daily walk in obedience to You.

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