2 Samuel 20

Bible Passage: 2 Samuel 20

I chose a gloomy picture for a gloomy chapter.

After reading the chapter for today, do you agree with me that like a lot of the chapters we have been reading, it is characteristically violent and depressing?

Besides that, chapter 20 is also the close to a series of events that started with Absalom’s march into Jerusalem with his general, Amasa, and the army he gathered from all the tribes of Israel with the intention of seizing the throne.

Here is a very succinct summary of the events that happened between then and our chapter for today.

1. Absalom and his general, Amasa, march into Jerusalem with the support of the people whose hearts he ‘stole’ (2 Sam 15:6).
2. David flees. David’s personal body guard and the military forces with Joab flee with David.
3. David’s forces engage Absalom’s forces. General Joab kills Absalom.
4. David is upset when he is told Joab had killed Absalom to end the civil war despite the fact that David’s military had won the battle securing David’s kingship.
5. David replaces General Joab with Amasa, the defeated rebel general of Absalom.
6. The tribe of Judah, David’s tribe, rushes to welcome David back to his throne without inviting the other eleven tribes to join them.
7. The northern tribes (Israel) express their disappointment to the southern tribe of Judah who “responded even more harshly than the men of Israel” (2 Sam 19:43).
8. This causes Sheba, a troublemaker from the tribe of Benjamin in Israel, to sound a trumpet and challenge the legitimacy of David as king. All of the northern tribes (Israel) join with him and a second civil war soon breaks out.
9. David orders his new general, Amasa, to organize his troops within three days to pursue Sheba. Remember that Amasa was leading a civil war against David and fighting David’s military less not much earlier. Now Amasa is to organize and lead David’s troops into this second civil war.
10. The military is trying to figure out who the general is: Joab or Amasa?
11. Nobody really knows who the enemy is or who the good guys are anymore. The enemy that was just defeated was the king’s own son who was supported by members of David’s own royal staff. Now David’s faithful military have been placed under the command of the rebel general Amasa and ordered to attack Israel.
12. When David’s troops are assembled under the leadership of Amasa, the former General Joab shows up and kills Amasa.
13. Amasa’s corpse is removed and hidden in the ditch and David’s men march to the northern border of Israel to attack on an Israelite city where Sheba fled.
14. Joab begins to besiege the northern city of Abel-Beth-Maacha. While in the process of battering in their walls, a wise woman looks down from the wall and asks what they are doing. When Joab responds by saying they are fighting the rebel forces of Sheba, the wise woman says his head would be thrown to them. Sheba’s head is then thrown to Joab. The civil war ends and the men return home.
15. General Joab went back to King David in Jerusalem and they lived happily ever after . . . until David orders Solomon to deal with Joab . . . but, that is a story from First Kings.

(Italics for events in chapter 20)

While I was reading this summary, what went through my mind was – poor soldiers.

Due to the sin of David and the machinations of various people from Absalom to Joab, these poor soldiers (on either side) must have been led on a merry wild goose chase. How confused and frightened they must have been; especially with the gruesome deaths of Absalom and Joab.

Sometimes, we too may be like these soldiers, not knowing who our leaders and our enemies are.

Who should we listen to? What should we fight for? Who should we fight against?

One very important thing we can learn from our chapter today would be not to listen to man but to God. Our chapter shows us very clearly how fickle and ‘many-faced’ man can be. It also shows us how circumstances can make someone our friend one moment and our enemy the next.

However, if we all were to follow what is unchanging and true, we would all be on the same side, fighting the same enemy and not waste our energy fighting among ourselves like the armies of Israel. Just like it is sad that the nation of the LORD should engage in civil wars, it would be even more tragic for the church of Christ, with His Spirit, to have divisions and schisms within her.