Mercy without justice can lead to lawlessness; justice without mercy results in inhumanity. Ishbosheth has been unceremoniously dispatched in his bed during his noontime siesta. Two brothers, “Rechab and Baanah” (2 Sam 4:5), not only killed the man, but beheaded him as well. “And they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David at Hebron, and […]
Read More… from December 19, 2023 — Justice Or Mercy To One’s Enemies?
“The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them” (Prov 11:3). In 2 Samuel 4, we see the drama of the final collapse of Saul’s house. It is written in three parts. First, “When Saul’s son heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost heart, and […]
Read More… from December 18, 2023 — What’s Left Of Saul’s House?
The distance between our sin and God’s holiness is infinite, but between a sinner and Jesus is just one step. When David received news of the murder of Abner, he sent out the command: “Tear your clothes, gird yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn for Abner” (2 Sam 3:31). How quickly the tide of history can […]
David was no weakling, but he confessed “the sons of Zeruiah are too harsh for me” (2 Sam 3:39). Abner quickly moved to realign the northern tribes under David’s rule: “In time past you were seeking for David to be king over you. Now then, do it! For the Lord has spoken of David, saying, […]
It’s one thing to just choose the winning side; it’s quite another to bring both sides together. “Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. But David grew stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker” (2 Sam 3:1). This was inevitable for […]
A boy asked his folks how WWII started. They were soon arguing. “OK. I see how wars start,” he said. In the battle at Gibeon’s pool, it’s hard to know who struck the first blow. The text simply reads, “each one grasped his opponent by the head and thrust his sword in his opponent’s side” […]
Read More… from December 12, 2023 — Competition Leads To Decimation
Unlike this pool, our church gatherings should be a place of consolation, not confrontation. “Now Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon” (2 Sam 2:12). According to 1 Chronicles 8:28-33, this was the ancestral home of both Abner and Saul’s families. Gibeon […]
When defying God’s will, Ishbosheth would discover he couldn’t get far enough away to be safe. You may recall that the territory of Benjamin, home to Saul and his family, ran along the northern border of the much larger tribal allotment of Judah. Evidently, Abner thought his make-believe king, Ishbosheth (whose name ironically means “man […]
Just when life seems to be settling down, another conflict begins, another foe rears his head. For some time, David had been consolidating his grip on the kingdom. From his introduction to the nation as their champion in his battle against Goliath, to his military interventions at places like Keilah, he had shown his prowess […]