Summary #20

Weekly Summary
2 Samuel 13-21, Some Psalms (Other Passages Between)

Last week, we got quite the glimpse of our warrior hero: Winning battle after battle, uniting the country, offering to build God a new home, and getting the promise that his descendents would remain on Israel’s throne forever. Things are looking great for David and Co. And then this week, things start falling apart.

Even though it is the Spring of the year, “the time when Kings go out to battle”, David sends Joab, his commander, out to do battle with Ammonites without him. Left on his own, David sees a beautiful woman. He asks about her, and finds out that she is the wife of one of his mighty men. Despite her marital status, David sends for her, and they end up in bed together. She leaves, and the next thing he hears from her is that she is pregnant.

Now, this is NOT what things are supposed to look like in Israel!

This demands action on the part of David, so he sends for her husband to return home from battle. He asks how the war is going, etc., and then sends him home to his wife. He is looking hard for plausible deniability! But Uriah doesn’t cooperate, and stays the night on the floor of the palace. David gets him drunk, and tries again, but Uriah has too much honor to enjoy the company of his wife while the rest of his cohorts are fighting. Wow. Exactly the opposite of David. Anyway... Uriah returns to the battle, and now David is stuck with a woman who is pregnant after a visit to his palace, with a husband who cannot be the father. So, he tells his commander to send Uriah to the front, then retreat from him, leaving him in danger. Joab doesn’t quite do this - in fact he embarks on a fairly ridiculous military strategy that ends up in disaster. Luckily for him, it ends in the death of Uriah, which he knows will smooth the way with David. So now David is free to take the beautiful Bathsheba as his wife.

Seems like everything is just going to work out fine for David, and then along comes Nathan the prophet. He tells a story about a rich man, a poor man, and a stolen pet lamb that infuriates David, and uses it to point out that David has done a terrible thing. The punishment for this is that the child born of this tryst will die. David repents, mourns, and prays for mercy. The child does indeed die, and David finds refuge, strength and comfort in God.

They (David and Bathsheba) eventually have another child: Solomon. Things are going fine in that part of the family, but not so much in some of the other parts. Absolom, David’s son, has a full sister, Tamar. Their half brother Amnon desperately wants Tamar, his half sister. He first connives to get her into his room, then rapes her. Once he has done this, he despises her and turns her out, a disgraced woman. David is bothered, but does nothing. Absolom is furious, and starts plotting against David. He eventually constructs an elaborate ruse to get Amnon alone, out away from the rest of the family, and kills him. Messengers first tell David that Absolom has killed all of his sons, but he eventually hears the truth: Only Amnon is dead. Absolom flees to Geshur, and stays there for three years. David again does nothing to right this horrible situation.

Again someone comes to David to tell him a story that will highlight his own condition, only this time it is a woman who has been paid to tell David what Joab wants him to hear. After hearing this story, he allows Absalom to come safely back to Jerusalem, but he is not allowed in the king’s house. Absalom is not pleased with this situation, and demands that Joab intervene with David. Joab doesn’t respond to his summons, though, so Absalom sets fire to his field. That got his attention, and David was persuaded to allow Absalom to return to his presence. But Absalom was plotting... he begins to get between David and the people, and slowly gathered people that were loyal to him. He eventually asks David to let him go to Hebron to pay his vow to the Lord. When he went, though, he sent word throughout Israel that he would be king, and called them to him in Hebron. Absalom and a great army advanced on Jerusalem to unseat the King. David fled to the wilderness, but first he left a few key people to stay in Jerusalem to foil the advice of Absalom’s advisors, especially Ahithophel, who had originally been David’s advisor, but had defected.

Regrettably, David also hears of another betrayal: Mephibosheth, whom he welcomed to his own table, had decided that he was on Absalom’s side. His servant, Ziba, told this to David, and also brought David and his company food and transportation. In gratitude, David took everything that he had previously given to Mephibosheth, and gave it to Ziba. Meanwhile, David’s friend, Hushai, who David sent to Jerusalem to counter Ahithophel’s advice, wormed his way into Absalom’s inner circle. Every time Ahithophel gave advice, Hushai not only countered it, but sent word to David about what was transpiring. Eventually, seeing that he no longer held the sway he used to, Ahithophel returned to his home and hanged himself.

Then the inevitable arrives: having slept with his father’s concubines and declared himself King, Absalom faces David’s forces in battle. Although David wanted to fight with them, his commanders convinced them that they would be better off without him on the battlefield. During an incredibly devastating battle, Absalom’s long beautiful hair gets caught in a branch. Although the soldier that found him won’t kill him because he heard David’s command that Absalom be spare, Joab takes matters into his own hands and kills Absalom. Instead of celebrating the victory, David falls into deep mourning for the death of his son, which confuses and demoralizes his troops. Joab forces him to keep them loyal by appearing in front of them rather than staying in seclusion mourning. David returns to Jerusalem, and wins the hearts and minds of Judah. He forgave those who had betrayed him, and heard Mephibosheth’s plea that Ziba had slandered him, but the Israelites were not happy, feeling that they were being neglected.

Sheba, a Benjamite, capitalized on that discontent and fomented rebellion among Israel. Joab and the army pursued him, and followed him to a town and besieged it. When a woman asked to speak to Joab, asking why he would destroy an Israelite town, he says that he doesn’t want to hurt the town, he just wants Sheba. The townspeople decide that they want the same thing... and throw Sheba’s head over the wall to Joab. So the whole country unites behind David once again.

High drama in Israel - palace intrigue and battlefield heroics. Will it continue? Or will things calm down? Read on this week to see!