With friends like these, who needs enemies? – 2 Samuel 16—20, Part 4

Think about a time when a friend betrayed you. Maybe they lied to you. Maybe they knew you were struggling with a difficult situation in life, and they didn’t care for you. Betrayal is part and parcel of humanity. More than likely, we ourselves have done our fair share of betraying. We can think of times when we have not been good friends. As we continue our story of Israel’s great King David, in today’s post we observed how people treated him during a moment of great tension in his life.

In 2 Samuel chapter 19, the nation is reeling from a brief but disastrous civil war. The royal family is broken apart.  20,000 soldiers killed in the battle.  King David has survived, but is he weakened in the hearts and minds of the people?  Can David recover from this?  How will he respond?

In 2 Samuel 19, verses 9-12, with his rebellious son dead, David lays groundwork to return to Jerusalem and the throne.  One of his first decisions (verse 13) is a shocker. He appoints Amasa to be the new general of the military, replacing Joab.  Why is this a shocker?  Because Amasa was part of Absalom’s rebellion, and Joab has been David’s long-time general.  What is David doing welcoming a traitor, while snubbing a loyalist?

Perhaps David’s choice to make Amasa his top general is wise.  By extending an olive branch to Amasa, David is enacting reunification.  Also, Joab has always had a devious side (see post here). In the previous post, we saw Joab kill David’s son Absalom when David specifically said not to, and then Joab strongly confronted David for being in mourning. Though Joab’s confrontation almost certainly shook David out of his grief and laid the groundwork for David to return to the throne, perhaps David thinks Joab needs to be reigned in. By replacing Joab with Amasa, it seems David is addressing that.

In verses 14-18, David, his household, and many others begin to the journey back to Jerusalem.  The first story line that we paused in the first post in this series, we now turn to again.  Ziba, the steward of Miphobesheth joins David.  Then the second paused story line (also in this post) comes back to life when in verses 18-20, Shimei shows up.  Remember him?  Shimei is the guy who rained down rocks and curses on David and his entourage as they fled Jerusalem during the early hours of the coup. 

Now that David is victorious and heading back to his palace, Shimei has a very different tone.  He lays face down on the ground before David and asks for grace.  Abishai, the same general who asked David permission to put Shimei to death when Shimei was cursing David now again asks David’s permission to put Shimei to death.  David’s response is a unexpect (2 Samuel 19, verse 22),

“David replied, ‘What does this have to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? What right do you have to interfere? Should anyone be put to death in Israel today? Don’t I know that today I am king over Israel?’ So the king said to Shimei, ‘You shall not die.’ And the king promised him on oath.”

Then another visitor meets David, Mephibosheth, and he has a story to tell. When David was fleeing the city, Mephibosheth’s steward Ziba gave David all sorts of food and animals, reporting that Mephibosheth wanted to stay in the city so that the kingdom would be returned to him.  At the time, David believed Ziba and declared that Ziba was now the owner of all of Mephibosheth’s land.

A lot has happened since then.  Now Mephibosheth claims that Ziba’s story was a lie.  Mephibosheth says he had been dressed and ready to come meet David, while David was on the run, but Ziba betrayed Mephibosheth and lied to David. 

Who should David believe?  Both men are standing right there.  It’s one man’s word against the other, and he has no way to tell which is truthful.  So David says “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to divide the property, and you each get some.”

Then Mephibosheth blurts out, “Let Ziba have it all; I’m just glad you’re back safe.” 

At the end of chapter 19 David has a wonderful interaction with one his supporters, Barzillai, as David nears Jerusalem.  After settling the dispute between Ziba and Mephibosheth, it must have been a welcome change to have the strong support of Barzillai. 

The king says goodbye to Barzillai, and right away he runs into more controversy.  Troops from Israel are angered by troops of Judah.  Tribal loyalties rear their ugly heads, and tensions run high.  Politics can be so frustrating.  In the case of Israel and Judah, they were fighting over who has more allegiance to the king. 

Israel blamed Judah, “You are stealing the king away!

Judah responded, “We’re not stealing him away.  The king is from our tribe, of course we would be close to him.”

Israel retorted, “We are ten tribes, so we have more of a claim on David than you do!”

Back and forth the arguing went.  Until one man named Sheba speaks up.  He was from the tribe of Benjamin which at that time was aligned with Israel against Judah.  Sheba blows a trumpet and calls the soldiers from Israel to leave and join him.  This is not good.  After finally arriving at peace, is David about to face another civil war? Maybe he was just in the eye of the hurricane.

We find out in the next post.

Photo by Nik Shuliahin 💛💙 on Unsplash