“We are the peaceful and faithful in Israel. You are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why do you want to swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?”
– 2 Samuel 20:19
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you make good decisions? How do you know that a decision that you make falls within God’s perfectly preplanned will for your lives? Do you think that you can make a decision that will fall outside God’s flawlessly fabricated plan that He originated before He positioned an egg-shaped, organic mass – now known as planet Earth, into the solar system? Why do you think that God programmed scenes that are tainted by having villains – such as troublemakers and murders, in the life dramas of each guy, gal and kid who He has assigned, is assigning and will assign a planet Earth mission? Have you ever wondered why God would want to include heartbreaking happenings on planet Earth’s ‘perpetual handbook’ when God could have just as easily filled planet Earth’s ‘eternity playbook’ with heartwarming incidents? Samuel – in his Samuel Book, did not gloss over the dark moments that took place in the lives of Saul and David. Saul and David were the first two kings who God had Samuel anoint and position over His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals. Samuel recounts in 2 Samuel 20 a series of grisly events that were perpetrated by an overconfident guy who was only thinking of himself. The guy’s name is Sheba. Sheba was apparently a known troublemaker. Sheba decided that he would see to it the overthrow of David. David was at this time the king who was ruling over the guys and gals who were living in the land of Israel. Sheba possibly had an ax to grind. Sheba had Benjamin tribal clan heritage. Saul – who was the first king to rule over the guys and gals who lived in the land of Isreal, had Benjamin tribal clan heritage. David had Judah tribal clan heritage. Sheba may have been dealing with a jealousy spirit. Sheba may have been believing that Benjamin tribal clan should be the only source pool for Israelite people group kings. David by this time was an old codger. David had already one of his kids – Absalom, try to usurp his king position. Absalom’s attempt at overthrowing his dad came to end when Joab – who was David’s army commander, killed Absalom by jabbing three javelins through his heart. Joab was one of David’s half-sister’s kids. Abishai was one of Joab’s bros. Joab and Abishai remained loyal to David – even when David ‘demoted’ Joab after Joab killed his kid Absalom.
When David decided to be proactive against Sheba’s call to have him overthrown, David asked Amasa to take the lead to pull together a band of Judah tribal clan guys to take on Sheba and his cohorts. Amasa was Absalom’s commander when Absalom thought that he could do in his dad. After his kid was brutally murdered by Joab, David opted to pardon Amasa instead of having Amasa killed, too. David gave Amasa three days to recruit a Judah tribal clan troop. When Amasa had not shown up after three days with a band of Judah tribal clan dudes, David ordered Abishai – who once killed a giant for him, to take his loyal band of mighty warriors – which included Joab’s guys, Kerethites and Pelethites, to chase down and kill Sheba. When Abishai’s small army of David’s trusty ‘renegades’ arrived at the great rock in the town of Gibeon, they met up with Amasa. When Joab went to meet Amasa, Joab ‘accidentally’ had his dagger fall to the ground from the sheath that he had attached to his belt. After picking up his dagger from the ground and as he was leaning towards Amasa to give Amasa the customary salutatory kiss, Joab stuck his dagger into Amasa’s stomach resulting in Amasa dying. Joab probably had a lot of pent up anger because of David passing him over for Amasa to be the leader of an armed force and then David choosing Abishai to lead his devoted gang of fighters after Amasa had not returned within the three day timeframe that David had given him to return. Even though Joab had come under David’s disfavor, the dude would end up reasserting a heavy foot military leadership mode by taking over leading the motley bunch of David’s mighty men and Judah clan guys who Amasa had amassed. Joab and his band of fighters caught up with Sheba at the city of Abel Beth Maacah. After Joab began to build a siege ramp against the outer fortification of Abel Beth Maacah to get inside the city to find and kill Sheba, a wise woman – who lived in the city of Abel Beth Maacah, asked to talk with Joab. Verse 19 elucidates what the woman said to Joab, “We are the peaceful and faithful in Israel. You are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why do you want to swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?”” After Joab explained to the wise woman why he was building a siege ramp against her city’s wall, the woman returned to talk to her people. The inhabitants of the city of Abel Beth Maacah decided to cut off Sheba’s head – which they threw from the wall to Joab.
Your grandpaa only needs to turn on a TV and he will hear examples of evil at work. Shebas – who represents troublemakers, and Joabs – who represents murderers, are universal nemeses for the proliferation of hope. When your grandpaa was in Haiti in March of this year – after an earthquake killed over 220,000 guys, gals and kids, he felt a lot of push back from especially Haitian guys. It seemed to your grandpaa that Haitian guys were expecting something from him and that they would . . . if he did not give them what they wanted. Recent news from Haiti is that at least 45 guys and gals have been lynched because these guys and gals supposedly acerbated the spreading of cholera which is arbitrarily killing guys, gals and kids in Haiti. Would you pursue God’s hope if there was no evil?
2 Samuel 20 (1121)