Theological Commentary: Click Here
I find this
chapter interesting in that we get a glimpse of humanity from multiple
directions. First, David comes to God
and asks his will. God tells David to go
up and be anointed as king. David
obeys. As he does, he calls out the
people who cared for Saul’s dead body and praises them for doing so. David accepts the role of leadership with
grace towards his enemies.
In contrast,
we get to see Abner. Abner doesn’t
consult God. Abner takes one of Saul’s malformed
sons and lifts him up as king. Abner may
be loyal to Saul. Abner may simply enjoy
his position of power and not want to relinquish it. Either way, Abner does not react with grace
towards his opponents or towards God. It
ends with war among the tribes.
We can learn
much from the contrasting actions.
However, what I think is really telling is that this whole situation
arises because the people demanded a king in the first place. When we look back at the time of the Judges, the
Hebrew people were not fighting with each other. They had their issues, but they were external
rather than internal. When the people
were under God, they were united. Now,
however, they are desperately concerned about human leadership and human
authority. They are concerned about
authority, power, greed, domination, rank, etc.
It’s interesting to note how the people fall as their desire to be under
God wanes.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment