Can we learn anything from the story of David letting a murderer go free? – 2 Samuel 2:9—3:39, Part 4

Civil war has torn Israel apart. David is king of the tribe of Judah. Ish-Bosheth is king of the other eleven tribes of Israel. It is one versus eleven. Though David’s side is only one tribe, they are beating the other eleven. To make matters worse for the eleven tribes, their king, Ish-Bosheth, makes a serious mistake. He accuses his top general, Abner, of impropriety, and Abner lashes back at Ish-Bosheth, threatening to defect to David and bring the eleven tribes with him. Abner makes good on his word, meeting first with the elders of the eleven tribes and then with David, brokering the deal. Finally the civil war is about to end.

Suddenly everything changes.  In 2nd Samuel chapter 3, verses 22-25, David’s top general, Joab, returns from battle. When Joab finds out that David has just met with Abner, Joab can’t believe it. He confronts David, “You can’t be serious. You’re making a deal with the enemy? Abner is lying to you!”

Joab’s logic makes sense.  Abner’s plan for peace could be a ruse to take David down.  Is David getting taken?  Maybe Joab is providing a helpful corrective. Or he just might be angry. Remember that Abner killed Joab’s brother in the opening battle of the civil war (read post here). Joab now takes matters into his own hands. 2 Samuel chapter 3, verses 26-27 describe a tragedy,

“Joab then left David and sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the cistern at Sirah. But David did not know it. Now when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into an inner chamber, as if to speak with him privately. And there, to avenge the blood of his brother Asahel, Joab stabbed him in the stomach, and he died.”

Not Abner, but Joab turns out to be the sneaky one.  You might think, “Wait a minute, why would Abner have ever agreed to this private meeting with Joab? Abner had killed Joab’s brother.  How did Abner not see this trap?”  Remember when Joab’s brother, Asahel, was chasing Abner in the middle of battle, a chase which ended when Abner killed Asahel? With Asahel fiercly running after him, Abner called back to Asahel, “If I kill you, I won’t be able to look your brother Joab in the face?”  Well now Abner is looking Joab in the face. Shouldn’t Abner at least be on yellow alert?

Maybe Abner let his guard down, agreeing to meet Joab thinking, “I just came from a great meeting with David, and we talked about peacefully uniting the country behind David.  David must have sent Joab to reach out to me so we can work out details for the transition.”  Abner might have assumed Joab wanted to talk military operations, chain of command, etc.

Except that Joab has not gotten over Abner’s killing of Asahel. Abner could say, “I didn’t want to kill your brother! I tried to get him to stop. The action was in self-defense.” Joab is not of a mind to hear any excuse.  Joab stabs Abner in the stomach, as Abner did to Asahel.  Abner dies, and just like that, the peace process is in jeopardy. If you were David, what would you do when you found out about Joab’s murder of Abner?

When David finds out, it wrecks him. Let me summarize 2nd Samuel 3, verses 28-39. David was planning a peaceful transition of power.  But Joab has ruined the peace process, and potentially made the civil war worse than before.  So David takes great pains to make it very clear that he had no part in this, and that Joab is to blame.  David publicly accuses Joab, David fasts and laments, inviting the people to join him. David participates in Abner’s funeral processing, weeping. He is so distraught, the people plead with him to resume eating.

It seems that David is striving to make peace out of a situation that was about ready to explode into more war.  And it works.  David’s decision to fast, to not eat, to mourn the loss of Abner, helps all the people see that David really wants to handle this delicate situation with wisdom. 

David even admits to his men, that the sons of Zeruiah, which is Joab and his brother are in his words “too strong for me.” I wonder how deeply David believed that.  David is dealing with a complex situation.  What do you do when headstrong people take action they believe is justified, but that action is so wrong? 

Maybe David is a good example for us. David is not quiet in declaring Joab wicked and evil.  David publicly calls out to the Lord to repay the evildoer.  But David himself doesn’t punish Joab.  Is David cowardly?  Or wise?  I’m iffy that David is being wise here.  Here’s why: Joab will continue as the commander of David’s military, and throughout the rest of the series, we will hear about Joab many more times.  Sadly, Joab, who David let get away with murder, will commit murder again.

In the end, David will never forget what Joab did when he killed Abner.  How do we know David will never forget?  Thirty-three years later, at the end of his life when he is transferring the throne to his son Solomon, David will remind Solomon that Joab murdered Abner, and ask Solomon to deal with Joab.  What will Solomon do?  That’s a story for another day.

For now, David’s response to Joab is a mixed bag. He clearly and publicly calls out Joab’s sin, asking God to deal with Joab. That is very courageous of David, and very bold. It must have shamed Joab. But David doesn’t enact any consequences beyond shame. Joab remains in his role as commander of the Army.

In my opinion, it is very difficult to hold two biblical principles in tension: 1. Love covers a multitude of sins, and 2. Speak the truth in love. To put it another way, it is the tension between grace and law. But we Christians do well to hold grace and law in tension. We need both. Perhaps David is a good example for us. What do you think?

Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash