The Gentle Shepherd - 2 Samuel 2:11-3:39 Series

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Introduction

We left off last time with David being anointed as king of Judah after the death of Saul. Finally David is crowned king by the people in the south. However no sooner do we start to celebrate that then we hear about some ominous news from the north. Saul’s chief military commander, Abner, made Ish-Bosheth king in the north. So trouble is brewing – two different kings in Israel.

10 Ish-Bosheth son of Saul was forty years old when he became king over Israel, and he reigned two years. The house of Judah, however, followed David.11 The length of time David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

The writer does not tell us how those reigns lined up, so we do not know if Ish-Bosheth reigned during the first two years of David’s reign in Judah or the last two years or some time in the middle. All we know for sure is Ish-Bosheth did not last long. He really was not much of a king.

The War

Abner, however, was a very powerful figure and he is about to make a move on David.

12 Abner son of Ner, together with the men of Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, left Mahanaim and went to Gibeon.

This is a major troop movement – involving hundreds and possibly thousands of soldiers – moving down toward where David is. It is pretty clear what Abner has in mind. He is not bringing hundreds of soldiers down toward Judah just to say Hi. And so David’s general responds and they meet at the half way point between Mahanaim and Hebron.

12 on 12

13 Joab son of Zeruiah and David's men went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon.

Joab was David’s nephew. David had a sister by the name of Zeruiah who had three sons, and all three of them made it into David’s group of 30 mighty men of valor. They were Joab, Asahel, and Abishai – three very tough and very severe individuals. I don’t know what kind of woman Zeruiah was, but she had three mad dogs for sons. And the chief mad dog – Joab, is the one who meets Abner.

Archeologists have found a huge pool carved out of rock – 35 feet across and 70 feet deep with a spring at the bottom.

13 … One group sat down on one side of the pool and one group on the other side. 14 Then Abner said to Joab, "Let's have some of the young men get up and fight hand to hand in front of us."

Literally he said, “Let’s have some of the men get up and play.” The word translated “fight hand to hand” is actually one word that normally means to laugh, or play, or entertain, or mock, or celebrate, or dance. It is hard to say for sure if it is a euphemism for “fight” – so that this was representative combat like with David and Goliath, or if it was some kind of contest or wrestling match that escalated and got out of hand and swords were drawn and it ended up in bloodshed. Whatever was intended initially – the outcome was horrible.

14 …"All right, let them do it," Joab said. 15 So they stood up and were counted off--twelve men for Benjamin and Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, and twelve for David. 16 Then each man grabbed his opponent by the head and thrust his dagger into his opponent's side, and they fell down together.

It was a real offensive struggle – not a lot of defense. All 24 of these guys had the same military training, so they all try the old “fake to the head and go for the side” maneuver. But evidently none of them had gotten training on the “What to do if someone tries the old ‘fake to the head and go for the side’ maneuver on you,” so all 24 end up with fatal wounds.

This story is just sickening. These are all Israelites, and they die for nothing. Nothing is decided by this. Just like that – 24 widows, 24 families without fathers – and absolutely nothing is accomplished.

16 …So that place in Gibeon was called Helkath Hazzurim.

That means either “field of daggers” or “field of hostilities.” They named the place after what happened, because what happened was so horrible. But as horrible as it was, it does not end there.

17 The battle that day was very fierce

They have their little 12-on-12 thing, it is a draw, and that erupts into full scale war.

David not mentioned

Notice there is no mention of any involvement by David. In fact, there is no mention of any involvement by David during the entire war. Before the war David sends a message of kindness to Jabesh Gilead, and the next time we see David doing anything is at the end of the war when he negotiates the terms of peace. This war was not David’s doing. He was not even there when it started. And while I am sure he did what he had to do as king during the years it went on, the writer shows Joab and Abner as the ones who are really responsible for this war.