A Rough Transition
Well,
David sure has a difficult time with the beginning of his reign. David not only has to deal with civil war,
but now he has to deal with Abner switching sides, disloyalty among his own
troops, being in a position to mourn someone who for so long opposed him, and
living with as many wives as he has seemed to collect! I don’t mean that in a chauvinistic sense but
rather in a sinful breaking of God’s ways regarding marriage. But we’ll get to that. It is not the smoothest of all transitions.
Abner
Let’s
begin with Abner switching sides. We
have no evidence to think that Abner had been in relation with Rizpah. We do know that Abner had been “making
himself strong in the house of Saul,” but this is more than likely a political
comment and not a relational/sexual comment.
In that light, the accusation that Ishbosheth makes against Abner takes
on a whole new meaning. Let me explain.
Think of a
pride of lions – or a pack of wolves, or just about any other “pack” animal. A pride of lions usually consists of a bunch
of lionesses and a single alpha lion.
According to the rules of the nature of lions, that single alpha lion
has the “hierarchical right” to mate with any of the lionesses in his
pride. If there is a beta lion that
wants to come in and show that he is taking over, one of the ways for the beta
lion to assert himself would be to mate with one of the alpha lion’s
lionesses. By mating with another lion’s
lioness, the beta lion is staking his claim on the pride (or kingdom) of the alpha
lion.
So it is
with Ishbosheth. The claim that
Ishbosheth makes against Abner has so much more to do with politics than it has
anything to do with whether Abner is having sex with Rizpah. In fact – knowing what I know about ruling
people, power struggles among nobility, and the value of women at this time in
history – my money would be on the fact that Ishbosheth could really care less
whether or not Abner was having sex with Rizpah. What Ishbosheth is concerned about is an
attempt from Abner to make a “claim” on Saul’s kingdom. After all, if Abner begins to sleep with
Saul’s wives – or Saul’s harem – Abner is laying claim upon that that which was
once Saul’s – that which is now Ishbosheth’s.
This accusation has so little to do with sex and everything to do with
political right to rule and be in power.
This is
likely why Abner leaves so easily and comes to David. Abner switches allegiances because the
conflict was all about politics. Abner
does not take Rizpah with him – as he might do if the accusations were true and
actually about a relationship between him and Rizpah.
We can
learn something quite significant from this incident. Human beings can get quite possessive about
their power once they have it. They can
be quite argumentative when it comes to a potential rival. Human beings will often make accusations
before seeking out the truth regarding another person’s intentions. Human beings have a much easier time making
enemies than seeking truth when it comes to power struggles and relational
issues.
Accepting Abner
So Abner
comes to David and David welcomes him.
Let’s pause and reflect on this.
Abner fought against David at Saul’s side. Abner rejected David’s kingship and anointed
Ishbosheth instead. Now David seems to
readily accept him! How is this so?
It’s quite
simple for the spiritually minded. In
Abner’s coming to David, Abner has seen the light. He has seen how Ishbosheth is not God’s ruler
but rather a simple incarnation of his father: power-hungry. When Abner comes to David, it is a moment of
repentance. Not to mention that Abner
brings the promise of the end of this civil war with him! When Abner subjects
himself to David’s leadership, all David has to do is forgive. Being a person who has made as many mistakes
as David has, forgiveness is something that he understands.
Joab and Abishai
Joab and
Abishai have a little more difficulty with this than David. They are less interested in forgiveness and
more interested in avenging their brother.
Their quest for vengeance drives them right past God’s calling for forgiveness. There is a reason that God tells us that
“vengeance is mine, I will repay.” Only
the Lord knows if a person has truly become repentant or deserves vengeance. We as human beings cannot know another person’s
heart – so God calls us to forgive. In
other words, err on the safe side by forgiving and let God handle whether or
not a person has become truly repentant.
Joab and
Abishai do not heed this Biblical counsel and they end up receiving a curse
from David because of it. Human instinct
puts David in the difficult place of mourning an enemy who legitimately
repented while cursing two people who had stood beside him and been loyal
soldiers up until this point. The ways
of humanity often put people of God in difficult situations. Understand this, though. When it comes to loyalty, David is loyal to
God and repentance more than he is loyal to human loyalties.
David and Marriage
Of course,
David is not completely the perfect man of God here, either. David may have done really well with respect
to his response of forgiveness to Abner, but he does really horribly with his
perspective on marriage. Up until this
passage we had known about two of David’s wives. Here we learn that he has taken at least 7,
assuming all of his wives bore him sons – which may or may not be a correct
assumption to make. Just so that we have
an accounting, the 7 wives of David are: Ahinoam of Jezreel, Abigail the widow
of Nabal of Carmel, Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur, Haggith, Abital,
Eglah, and of course Michal the daughter of Saul.
David has
fallen with respect to God’s perspective on marriage. David is clearly having sexual relations with
at least seven women in spite of God’s establishment of an honorable marriage
as being between one man and one woman.
Keep this fact in mind, because it is David’s lust that will bring about
more trouble than anything else in the story of David. Ishbosheth seemed to fail when it came to his
desire for power; David fails in his desire for lust.
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