Loving Your Enemies Beyond the Grave; 2 Sam 2-4

May the mumbling commence!

Greetings!  Welcome to my 100^th post.  Hope you are enjoying the trip through the chronological Bible as much as I am.  Thank you to my faithful readers.  If no one else gets anything out of these posts, I will.  Today’s reading continues in 2 Samuel.  I find the continuing honor that David gives to the family of Saul remarkable.  The love of enemies continues even after their death – it continues to the next generation.

Even as David began his reign over Judah in Hebron, Saul’s remaining son, Ish-Bosheth, is crowned king over the remainder of Israel.  Israel mimicked their kingship after the ones of the nations that surrounded them.  It only seemed right to pass the throne to one of Saul’s sons.  (I wonder how much our desire for being like the peoples and nations around us prevent us from aligning ourselves with the Lord’s Anointed One – Jesus the Christ.)  Because of these conflicting reigns, there was constant war between David’s men and Ish-Bosheth’s men.

Behind Ish-Bosheth was Abner, who was the commander of the armies of Israel.  When Abner fell to David’s men (and not at David’s wish – in fact David mourned over Abner), Ish-Bosheth was terrified.  Two of Ish-Bosheth’s raiding party leaders snuck into the bedroom quarters of Ish-Bosheth, where they killed Ish-Bosheth in his sleep.  They cut off his head and carried to David, thinking that David would reward him – much like the man that reported the death of Saul and Jonathan to David.  Read the interaction between David and these two men from 2 Samuel 4:8-12 –

They brought the head of Ish-Bosheth to David at Hebron and said to the king, "Here is the head of Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, your enemy, who tried to take your life. This day the Lord has avenged my lord the king against Saul and his offspring." 

David answered Recab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, "As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered me out of all trouble, when a man told me, 'Saul is dead,' and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and put him to death in Ziklag. That was the reward I gave him for his news!  How much more – when wicked men have killed an innocent man in his own house and on his own bed – should I not now demand his blood from your hand and rid the earth of you!" 

So David gave an order to his men, and they killed them. They cut off their hands and feet and hung the bodies by the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-Bosheth and buried it in Abner's tomb at Hebron.   

Again, there were men thinking that David would rejoice at the fall of his enemies.  David even recalled to these men what he had done to the man who killed Saul.  And it seems that David already knew the circumstances of the murder, and he was appalled at their actions.  Would a more honorable killing have been acceptable?  I doubt it.  David was fulfilling the vows that he made to Saul (and later he will fulfill his vows to Jonathan).  The vows did not become null and void with the death of Saul.  David was a man of his word.   These men were expecting reward and they received a death sentence instead.

Can you and I love our enemies so deeply?  Will we vow to protect our enemy’s children?  Will we vow to do them no harm?  David did these very things for Saul, who sought his life.  Jesus tells us to love our enemies.  When I look at the life of David, I see loving enemies put into action.  It is possible on the personal and on the political level!

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out