Some of us have to find our way in sometimes murky areas – the politics in management, in education; even, alas, church life. Much of 2 Samuel records David doing the same. What is there here for us? Three areas at least, to turn into prayer…
First, we need to grasp some of the issues surrounding power – particularly power in the secular context. Let’s go back to the book’s very first verses. King Saul had been killed. Now it was an Amalekite who turned up bringing the crown to David. Why is this 2 Samuel’s first lesson? (It’s always worth asking why a Bible book starts (and ends) the way it does.) Maybe simply because it happened.
But I wonder. As I read of David’s uncompromising reaction, I think of Abraham refusing to receive anything from the king of Sodom; and Jesus refusing Satan’s offer of all the world’s kingdoms, because He trusted, knew, that God was making Him King. This is a book about kings, leaders, hence about the dangers of power. One of the dangers of us God’s people having power (and it’s unavoidable: as managers, parents, church leaders) is that sometimes godless spiritual forces will want to be in on it, will want to be the ones giving it to us and whose methods maintain it: telling us our purposes are good, so those good purposes justify the suspect means they’re proposing. But they don’t. Maybe someone reading this needs to hear that and pray: that when we’re `in power` we need to be very careful to listen to God, to do things His way and to trust Him to look after the consequences…
Then secondly: something that will strike us in 2 Samuel is its realism. It’s one reason why we know it’s history, not legend. The German scholar Auerbach wrote a fascinating book Mimesis where he showed how complex realism is a mark of the Christian tradition, and absent from the classical one. And we’re used to that today in the novel, but the realistic novel only came into being in the 1600s. So, as fictional realism simply didn’t exist in the Bible days, the complex realism we’re seeing here has to have been copied from what actually occurred. (That’s a very good reason for our confidence in the gospels too.) Here in 2 Samuel we watch real-life involvement in messy, complex situations. On the one hand it blesses us to see how God uses David – and will use us! – to be a God-empowered focus of harmony in a chaotic world; yet we see how what he can do is limited (see 1:27, 3:39), and indeed there can be chaos even among those on the side of good. Solid realism: this is how things are, rather than how we might want them to be; and God works quietly in and through these things, working with the weak things of the world, doing something glorious in and through it all!
David has thugs as colleagues; indeed, David’s own words and deeds can be a sad mixture of the godly and the flawed. This mixture is something we often find in the old testament; eg in Job and Ecclesiastes. And God doesn’t step in and say, This is good and that is bad, except in the Bathsheba incident and in 2 Samuel’s final chapter. So if we want to grow in Him we need to take time with these stories to reflect, prayerfully (even if it’s on the train!); asking God to help us see what’s good and what’s not; great exercises helping us learn. (`Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil, Heb 5:14!) (For example: Is David doing the right thing when like the surrounding secular kings he starts to collect `concubines and wives`(5:13), in direct contradiction of Deuteronomy? Was this an ultimately fatal example for Solomon?)
And much of 2 Samuel shows us David working with morally ambiguous colleagues. In ch2 we met Abner. Abner knew full well that God had promised the kingdom to David. But he doesn’t take God and His commands into account; at least, not until 3:9,18, where we hear the ugly sound of a politician quoting God’s word, but only (here’s the thing to look out for) when it suits his purposes and hopes for power. How much bloodshed would have been avoided in ch2 if he’d taken this seriously earlier! And later in ch3 he loses his life because again he ignores Scripture. This time it’s God’s command that if you accidentally kill someone, as Abner had, you’ll be safe in a `city of refuge` like Hebron, but you must never leave it. Abner left the city of refuge, and it cost him his life. (I’ve heard some great gospel messages on that!) `The king lamented for Abner, saying, “Should Abner die as a fool dies?” (3:33). Good question; he has! People we encounter may quote Scripture or Christian ethics sometimes, but let’s be prayerfully aware: a commitment to these things that isn’t heartfelt can result in inconsistency, even disaster; and we may get damaged too if we’ve tied ourselves too closely with them. (I’ll leave you to apply that to contemporary politics. It’s not difficult.)
Then also in ch2 we met someone else who is key right through the book: David’s nephew Joab son of Zeruiah, another product of David’s unpleasant family. Joab and his brother Abishai are a fascinating mixture of pitilessness, loyalty, ruthlessness and occasionally genuine insight. (Again, it’s the sort of complex character that demonstrates we’re dealing with real history.) We see Joab as unselfish in 12:28, humble in 14:22, wise in 19:5-8; in 1 Chronicles 21 he has a better sense of God’s will than David does. But his motives are complex – is he loyal because, while he doesn’t want to be king, he wants to be the power behind the throne (cf 1 Kings 2:28)? His shrewdness in ch14 rightly sees David’s longings and cleverly sorts that situation out, but the longterm results are disastrous. And he’s a ruthless killer (18:14) who kills his rivals Abner (3:27) – though that was just about justifiable legally – but also his cousin and rival Amasa (20:10); that ruthlessness can all too easily be the other side of shrewd political pragmatism.
Joab’s combination of characteristics is something David finds hard to handle. (`What do you and I have in common, you sons of Zeruiah?` he asks both in 16:10 and 19:22 – perhaps a question he should have thought about more than he did.) Sometimes he handles it better than at others. After Joab murders Abner in ch3, David publicly dissociates himself (v37) from what his hardline supporter had done. (Joab saw what he did to Abner not only as avenging his brother but also as a necessary act of protection for David, v25. How, if you’re a leader, do you handle any over-zealous, `pragmatic` supporters, gifted warriors though they may be?) David makes it clear that for him the ends don’t justify unrighteous means, as he leads the mourning for Abner (v31). Indeed, he asserts his authority to the point of making Joab himself join in the mourning. (The point of ch4 is likewise that, for God’s people in secular situations, the ends don’t justify bad means, because God is in control, 4:9-11.) But it was hard: `Today, though I am the anointed king, I am weak, and these sons of Zeruiah are too strong for me`, says David; `May the Lord repay the evildoer according to his evil deeds!` (3:39). And nephew Joab stays on board; and after he kills David’s appointee Amasa he takes over as army chief, and David doesn’t seem able to do anything about that (20:11,23) – maybe because he’d let himself get compromised too, and he knows Joab knows all about his own treatment of Uriah (11:21)…
We need to pray, because sometimes we may find ourselves stuck with people like Joab, and Abner. (Even in church, alas.) Let’s pray for ourselves to hear God’s guidance, and likewise for our church leaders. And let’s repent when we sense we’ve started operating in ungodly political ways ourselves! It can be especially hard for Christians in secular politics, and may mean that ultimately they can’t make it to the very top because of the compromises it will involve. They need our prayers. And yet amidst all this, God’s purposes are being fulfilled; massively so in fact – it is in this very section (ch5) that Jerusalem is captured; Jerusalem that defied the Israelites in Joshua’s time (Josh 15:63), Jerusalem the capture of which prepared the way for the building of the temple, the central high point of the old testament. Amidst all the mess, God is at work! But as we’re reminded in 5:12, this wasn’t for David’s own sake, but for the furthering of God’s overall purpose. Holding on firmly to this can help us in murky situations we ourselves face.
One last thing, perhaps the most important – particularly in situations such as we’ve just been absorbing. When the book starts, Saul and Jonathan’s deaths mean David’s way is clear to the throne. Yet 2:1 describes how still he seeks God’s will. It’s very clear. Why? This is where Saul went disastrously wrong. David is (usually) careful to make his major decisions in the presence of God.
There’s a practical issue here: some of us are activists and some are contemplatives, and both personality types are needed. For myself, I find it too easy to rush straight into action preparing a sermon or embarking on a project, and it’s good when Christ puts someone alongside me who says, Well, shall we pray first…? `Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding…` That’s not telling us to remain inactive unless God gives us a sign; God has given us something to help us know His will, and it’s called a brain! But that brain needs to be filled, even cleansed, with God’s wisdom. James 1:5 is vital for all our major decisions and projects: `If any of you lacks wisdom` – and like David, we so often do! – `you should ask God… and it will be given you!` And then – but only then – we can reach out for the faith that God has kept that promise (whether we actually feel wiser or not), and step forward in decision-making, knowing He is with us. We will make good decisions if we do them with Him! But the big lesson here is, we must do it all in the presence of God…
So here’s the last lesson about secular leadership too from these chapters: in these contexts too, let’s take every major decision carefully to the Lord; seeking His mind (perhaps fasting?); asking Him to help us sense His plan; then trusting Him for his wisdom, and in faith, daring to decide….
