Day 139

There are a lot of parts to today’s reading.

I had once said Joab had so much influence over David. But it is more than that. It is loyalty, which is to the extent of not always following through with David’s instructions. As long as he thinks it’s for David’s good, he does what he wants. But David doesn’t always see it that way, and he is getting tired of Joab. David has a forgiving heart, but Joab seems to always seek revenge, even on behalf of David.

David is weeping about losing his son, and Joab warns him about loving those who hate him and hating those who love him. He told David that he’d lose his army if he didn’t go to encourage and congratulate them. I understand where Joab was coming from, but then David was still dealing with the loss of a son. It can be tough being a leader.

I guess David got tired of Joab and was quick to replace him with Amasa as the army commander when he sort to be restored as king from the people of Judah.

We also see David forgiving Shimei (Day 137 details what he did). On the other hand, Mephibosheth said Ziba betrayed him (Day 137). Even I had thought Mephibosheth was happy about the fight between David and Absalom based on what Ziba had told David. At this point, I don’t know who to believe. But David let them be.

David crossed Jordan to return as king and had a lot of supporters. Barzillai, who we had provided David and his men with supplies in 2 Samuel 17:27–29, came to say his goodbye. David had asked Barzillai to go with Jerusalem with him; I guess to reward him. But Barzillai declined. We are told he was a rich man, so he used his resources to help David. Barzillai, however, sends Chimham with David. It’s not clear to me who Chimham is to Barzillai.

We also see the men of Israel and the men of Judah fight over who has more right over David. Na wa! Then a man named Sheeba started a revolt, which made the men of Israel desert David. Anyway, David then sends his new commander of the army, Amasa, to summon the leaders of Judah within a time frame. When Amasa took long, and with Sheeba’s revolt, David realised that Sheeba might be more dangerous than Absalom. So he asked Abishai (who is Joab’s brother) to pursue Sheeba. Abishai took Joab’s men. I wondered why we didn’t read about a reaction from Joab when David gave Amasa his job. Anyway, Amasa joined the army on their way to finding Sheeba, and Joab used that as an opportunity to kill Amasa. J-O-A-B! I wondered if because he felt Amasa was going to be a traitor or it was because he lost his job to Amasa.

They continued in the pursuit of Sheeba till they met a wise woman who spoke to Joab about disturbing the city. Joab made it clear it wasn’t their intention, but they were after a man who was against David. The woman asked Joab not to worry about it, and she informed her people, who did the job of executing Sheeba. They cut off his head and threw it to Joab… eeewww!

Apparently, there was a three years famine in Israel during David’s reign, and it was because Saul killed the Gibeonites during his reign as king. Joshua had made an oath with the Gibeonites to live with the Israelites in the promised land, and they were to be allies. But Saul’s zeal got the best of him. David had to do a reconciliation. A tough one as the Gibeonites wanted revenge on Saul’s family. They asked to hand seven family members! It shows they were really bitter about what happened. Mephisobeth was spared because of David’s covenant with Jonathan. It’s a shame that Saul’s family had to suffer for this. What we do today matters for our generation. It is good to resolve issues, even within families.

At the end of today’s reading, David was going to be killed by a philistine due to exhaustion. Abishai rescued him. They agreed that David would not go to battle with them again as they couldn’t afford to lose him (the lamp of Israel).