Year 1, Day 321: 2 Samuel 4

Doing Evil And Believing It To Be Good

As I was reading through 2 Samuel 4 I began to think that the proper theme statement for this chapter is actually found in Romans.  Romans 3:8 says, “And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.” 

Paul asks the question there in Romans in the context of stating that through our unrighteousness God’s righteousness is shown.  Let me spin it out for you.  I sin.  I repent.  God shows His righteousness by forgiving my sin and not holding me guilty because Christ has already paid the debt for guilt.  Of course, I am accountable, just not guilty.  God shows us His righteousness by being gracious, merciful, and loving through the means of Jesus on the cross … all to us who do not deserve it.  So Paul asks the question – should we do evil so that good may come?

Or take Romans 6:1.  “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”  Here Paul asks the heart of the question.  If God’s grace is shown through His forgiveness, then the more I need it the more opportunity I give God to be gracious, right?  Ha!  I can’t help but smile every time I think through that logic because on a human level it makes so much sense; yet it is really one of the most horrible and corrupt ideas we could ever have!  Oh, how flawed human logic and reason is without God’s Holy Spirit to guide it. No, we do not sin to give God the opportunity to be gracious through His forgiveness!

Anyway, back to 2 Samuel 4.  The reason that I am thinking along these lines is because we see someone go and kill David’s rival, Ishbosheth, thinking that David will be pleased.  However, David has always shown himself to be reliably dependant on God with respect to allowing God to make him king on God’s timing.  David knows that God can make him king through His own power.  God doesn’t need us to go out and commit sin to prepare the way for God’s plan!

But this is precisely what the sons of Rimmon do.  They go out and murder Ishbosheth in cold blood – in the safety and security of his own house!  David had not ordained the action.  God had certainly not ordained the murder!  This murder happens because a human being makes his own plan to get in the favor of someone in power.  This plan happens for human desires and human intentions, not at all for promotion of God’s ways.  After all, if it were God’s plan, God would have ordained it!

So David judges the sons of Rimmon harshly, as they should be harshly judged.  They did not come to David repentant – for the record, remember that neither did the Amalekite who claimed to have killed Saul!  They did not come claiming to have done the action for God.  They came under a self-serving unrepentant human agenda and their action was condemned.

David knows the truth that Paul writes about in Romans.  We do not need to do evil in order to advance God’s plan or to demonstrate God’s grace.  In fact, when we do the evil just the opposite occurs.  When we do evil we hinder God’s plan and find our self standing in the path of God’s wrath.  In those situations when we have done evil, the best advice to receive is to humbly repent, confess what you’ve done, and do it quickly before judgment comes!  I’m not trying to scare anyone here, but it is good advice.

Of course, this does not mean that God cannot redeem evil.  God is powerful enough to use our sinfulness anyway.  God would prefer to not need to rework His plans on account of our sinfulness, but He can do so if He desires to do so.  It may not have been God’s plan to remove Ishbosheth in this manner and it may not have been God’s plan to have David become king in this manner, but God can redeem it.  David does become king – as we shall see in the next chapter.

Shall we do evil so that grace may abound?  Let it not be so.  Strike the thought from your mind!  Shall we go forth while boldly knowing that should we stumble into doing evil God can redeem it as well as knowing that He is willing to forgive us should we be repentant of it?  Amen.  Let that be so.  Go forth in boldness, not timidity.  But go forth humbly, seeking the way of God and not our own path.  Go forth humbly repenting when we turn aside from God’s ways.

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