2 Samuel 4: 1 – 12
I never asked for this
4 When Saul’s son heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost heart, and all Israel was troubled. 2 Now Saul’s son had two men who were captains of troops. The name of one was Baanah and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin. (For Beeroth also was part of Benjamin, 3 because the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have been sojourners there until this day.) 4 Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; and his nurse took him up and fled. And it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. 5 Then the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out and came at about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who was lying on his bed at noon. 6 And they came there, all the way into the house, as though to get wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. 7 For when they came into the house, he was lying on his bed in his bedroom; then they struck him and killed him, beheaded him and took his head, and were all night escaping through the plain. 8 And they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David at Hebron, and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul your enemy, who sought your life; and the LORD has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and his descendants.” 9 But David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from all adversity, 10 when someone told me, saying, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ thinking to have brought good news, I arrested him and had him executed in Ziklag—the one who thought I would give him a reward for his news. 11 How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous person in his own house on his bed? Therefore, shall I not now require his blood at your hand and remove you from the earth?” 12 So David commanded his young men, and they executed them, cut off their hands and feet, and hanged them by the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the tomb of Abner in Hebron.
Here’s my question for you: Have you ever been put into circumstances that you did not pursue, initiate, or even know about? Your boss comes to you and says he wants you to work on a certain project. You volunteer to help our with you kid’s little league and they pick you as a officer of the league. You go to a parent teacher’s meeting and the group picks you for the school board?
God puts dreams in our hearts and writes a destiny over our lives. And if we trust Him enough to take Him at His word, we will find ourselves on a journey toward the fulfillment of that dream which includes some unforeseen situations.
Unfortunately, the path that takes us to the promise is always wrought with thickets and thorns. Nothing worth having ever comes easy or without opposition. Storms will come, lions will roar, and our fears will be confronted. God allows the path to be difficult because He intends on refining us and preparing us for our place of promise. He is intent on extracting from us, that which our enemy would love to leverage against us
And so, as we follow His lead, we will at different times, find ourselves in a valley – a valley of decision to make on things that just came our way.
We all have weak spots and areas of inconsistency in our character. Until we see Jesus face to face, we will need His guidance and correction. He wants to take us from strength to strength; from glory to glory. He wants us to trust Him in all that life unfolds to us.
Ephesians 3:20 tells us that He wants to do abundantly above and beyond ALL that we could ever ask or think, but there’s a clincher in this verse…it’s according to His work within us. To the extent that He’s allowed to work in us, will be the extent that He does great things through us.
If you’re in a season of refining, lean in. Trust the loving hand of your precious Savior and know that He will lead you to the other side. Refuse a sense of entitlement and don’t demand to be understood. Instead, humble yourself and seek to understand what the Lord is doing around you. He will faithfully lead you and you will be strengthened as you go.
On the other side of this refining time is a fresh perspective and new mercies. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God; in due time you will be lifted and honored before a watching world.
In reviewing today’s scripture passage, I was moved to feel sorry for Ishbosheth. He was a son of the fallen king of Israel – Saul. We have witnessed the former king’s assistant and military leader Abner wanting things to continue as they were. He wanted his high office to not end so he picked Saul’s son and announced that he was now king of Israel yet behind the scene he was calling all the shots.
When Isbosheth had the audacity to do the role of the head leader he was put down by Abner. This lead to him being sold out to David. Yet we know from the word of God in the book of Proverbs 6, “A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.” The plans of Abner were foiled by an additional insert into the equation by the name of Joab who was the General of David’s military forces.
Abner had killed Joab’s brother and Joab returned the hurt by slaying Abner. This leads us to today’s further play which will deal with Isbosheth’s assassination. The poor man was thrown into all of this just because he was born into the royal line. He must have said, ‘Hey, I never asked for all of this.’
In this passage we have described how the two remaining successors of Saul were removed by ‘circumstances’ from being able to be claimants to the throne of All Israel, the one through tender age and debilitating lameness, and the other through assassination. The two remaining obstacles to David’s becoming king over all Israel were thus removed. The need for this is a reminder that David had constantly honored the house of Saul and had refused overall kingship while any claimants remained. Now, however, the way was open for him in all conscience to become king, for as the son-in-law of Saul he was the next obvious claimant to the throne. In the circumstances of the time an under-age boy who was also severely lame simply was not seen as suitable for kingship.
The news that Abner had been successfully negotiating a coup with David and had been slain must have caused huge repercussions in Israel. It would have totally undermined Ishbosheth’s position, for not only did it foment the idea that Israel would be better off under David, but it also meant that he had lost the one man who had kept him in power and had kept the kingdom safe. Without Abner Israel was now vulnerable and Ishbosheth no doubt feared that David might invade at any moment.
Meanwhile Abner’s treachery had also raised ideas in other people’s minds, causing them to recognize that Ishbosheth’s future was so uncertain that it might well be a good idea to link up with David as soon as possible. The result was that two of Ishbosheth’s commanders of raiding bands decided that they would hasten proceedings, and at the same time ingratiate themselves with David, by killing Ishbosheth and taking his head to David (a head which would be the indication of David’s ascendancy. The head was taken by the victor - 1 Samuel 17.51).
But being men controlled only by their ambitions what they had not reckoned with was David’s reaction to the cold-blooded murder of a brother of Jonathan and a son of Saul, whom he had sworn to preserve once he was in the ascendancy (1 Samuel 20.15). And the result was that they were executed, and their bodies used as a warning to others.
4 When Saul’s son heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost heart, and all Israel was troubled.
We do not know whether Ishbosheth was aware of Abner’s activities on behalf of David, but the news that Abner had been put to death in Judah must have been shattering. And it was not only he who was concerned, for all the Israelites now realized that they had become defenseless. The one man who had kept them reasonably strong was dead, and they were thus left with an weak king over an unstable country. All knew that something would have to be done.
2 Now Saul’s son had two men who were captains of troops. The name of one was Baanah and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin. (For Beeroth also was part of Benjamin, 3 because the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have been sojourners there until this day.)
There were two men who decided to seize the opportunity of the moment. They believed that they knew what had to be done. They were captains of raiding bands whose names were Baanah and Rechab. They were sons of Rimmon the Beerothite.
4 Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; and his nurse took him up and fled. And it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.
The two commanders were confident that there would be no suitable replacement in Israel with Ishbosheth out of the way. It thus cleared the way for David as Saul’s son-in-law. It is pointing out that the only other direct male descendant of Saul was under-age and severely disabled, and thus totally unsuited to kingship.
This situation is a sad indication of the sorrows that had come down on the house of Saul as a result of his rebellion agains the God of Israel - Yahweh. His three eldest sons had died with him in battle. His fourth son had been weak and under Abner’s thumb and would shortly be assassinated. And now we learn that his grandson had been dropped by his nurse when she was fleeing from the Philistines so that he was totally disabled.
5 Then the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out and came at about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who was lying on his bed at noon.
Meanwhile the two commanders who had determined on the assassination of Ishbosheth set off for Ishbosheth’s residence and arrived there around noon, at the time when Ishbosheth was enjoying his nap. That was when security would tend to be at a minimum.
6 And they came there, all the way into the house, as though to get wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.
The two men found no difficulty in getting past the guards into the palace because they simply gave the excuse that they had come to arrange for their men wheat rations. They would be well known to the guards as two of Ishbosheth’s commanders, and nothing would be suspected. They had no doubt done it many times before. But once safely in the building they made straight for Ishbosheth’s bed chamber and ‘stabbed him in the stomach’ before making their escape.
7 For when they came into the house, he was lying on his bed in his bedroom; then they struck him and killed him, beheaded him and took his head, and were all night escaping through the plain.
We find out here some additional information in their crime. After killing him they beheaded him. Then they took his head and made their escape, making for the Jordan Rift Valley (the Arabah), where they arrived around nightfall and continued on through the night in their haste to get out of Israelite territory and reach David safely. They clearly had no doubt about their welcome there.
8 And they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David at Hebron, and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul your enemy, who sought your life; and the LORD has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and his descendants.”
The two men brought the head of Ishbosheth to David. It would be absolute proof of their claim to have slain Ishbosheth and would also (in their view) enable David to make clear to all that he was victor over Ishbosheth. They never dreamed that David would see it in any other way.
They made what they had done worse by pretending that they had done it in Yahweh’s name. ‘Look,’ they said, ‘here is the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul your enemy, the one who sought your life. Yahweh has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed.’ They were presumably not aware that Saul’s eldest son had been David’s bosom friend, and that David took Yahweh’s Name seriously. To David the linking of such an assassination to Yahweh’s name would have increased their guilt many fold.
9 But David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from all adversity, 10 when someone told me, saying, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ thinking to have brought good news, I arrested him and had him executed in Ziklag—the one who thought I would give him a reward for his news. 11 How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous person in his own house on his bed? Therefore, shall I not now require his blood at your hand and remove you from the earth?”
However, to their astonishment, instead of being pleased and grateful, David looked at them with great severity and pointed out that ‘as Yahweh lived who had redeemed his soul from adversity’ when someone had come to him and had told him that Saul was dead, thinking it would be good news to him, he had him put to death. As we know that was a slight understatement of the situation for the person he was speaking of had in fact tried to deceive him, and had claimed to have killed Saul, but the point was clear, the death of Saul had not been good news for him, even though Saul had not behaved well towards him. What then did they think he would do to those who informed him that they had slain Saul’s son, and had done it, not because he had asked them to do it because he was afraid of being killed by the Philistines, but simply when, as a righteous person who had done nothing especially wrong, he was lying on his bed enjoying his rest? Did they not realize therefore that all that they could reasonably expect was to be put to death and removed from the earth as not fit to live? By this they learned too late that David deeply respected the house of Saul, and loved them for Jonathan’s sake, and therefore could not forgive those who did harm to members of that house, especially when it was simply with a view to personal advancement.
12 So David commanded his young men, and they executed them, cut off their hands and feet, and hanged them by the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the tomb of Abner in Hebron.
David then commanded his young men to execute the two, after which their hands and feet were cut off and their bodies were hung up beside the pool at Hebron. This decapitation was presumably because their hands had done the evil deed, and their feet had run to do the deed, and possibly because their feet had then sped in order to receive what they had hoped would be their reward for murder. This severe treatment was as a warning to others of what would happen to those whose hands and feet were used for doing evil.
