II SAMUEL 20 Lesson # 22
“BEING JOABED”
I. Introduction:
Q Who killed Abner and caused David to look like he was responsible for Abner’s death?
An = Joab. He murdered Abner in cold blood in (II Samuel 3:26-27).
Q Abner had come in peace to David and was killed just after visiting David. Did that pose a threat to David politically?
An = Yes, it did. David was very vulnerable after the death of Abner. If people thought David double-crossed Abner then his hopes of unifying the two warring factions (Judah and Israel) would have been seriously undermined.
David got “Joabed”. His work was seriously undermined and misrepresented by the actions of someone who had totally different motives than David.
Q Have you ever been accused of doing something when it was someone under your authority who did the deed without your knowing it?
An = Have them share a few examples of the Joab’s in their lives.
Note: David has tried to come home and unify the nation, but Judah and Israel are feuding again. They fought over who should escort him over the Jordan River. It was a stupid argument, but an indication that not all was well between these two political factions. When he gets home, David finds that more trouble is brewing. Matthew Henry says, “We must not think it strange, while we are in this world, if the end of one trouble be the beginning of another.” (Henry, p.354).
II. The Sheba Rebellion: II Samuel 20:1-22.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 20:1-3.
Q What tribe does this new rebel belong to?
An = The tribe of Benjamin.
Q What tribe gave Israel her first king?
An = Again, it was the tribe of Benjamin. It appears they never got over the fact that their tribe was no longer in political prominence.
Q What was the result of Sheba’s rebellion in 20:2?
An = Israel withdrew from David which left him with only the tribe of Judah. The nation was not at war, but again it was divided.
Q Why did David no longer co-habit with the ten concubines left at Jerusalem that Absalom had defiled?
An = We are not told. It could be that the northern tribes objected to the fact of concubines (it was against the Mosaic Law), and David was trying to appease them, and it could be that they were a strong reminder of his humiliation at the hands of Absalom and his son’s death. It could be both or neither (see Brueggemann, p. 330).
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 20:4-5.
Q Why did David ask Amasa to call out the men of Judah to go after Sheba?
An = David was no doubt tired of Joab and his ruthlessness (Abner and Absalom) and David had promised to make Amasa the general, to appease the tribe of Judah and get them to welcome him back again. See II Samuel 19:11-14, especially 19:13.
Q Did Amasa comply with the king’s wishes?
An = Yes, but not on time. Amasa was late and the need to get the Sheba revolt under control was pressing. It could be that Amasa just had a hard time or that he was not good at getting things done or not used to moving quickly when instructed. Some think it was a deliberate move on Amasa’s part to send David a subtle message.
Q Why are you late to certain things? What do you mean by it?
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 20:6-7
Q How does David react to Amasa’s tardiness?
An = David went back to his old leaders and his own crack troops. Notice that he commissioned Abishai though and not Joab. Although Joab did not get commissioned he is said to go along on the mission.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 20:8-13.
Q What did Joab say to Amasa?
An = He asked him how he was doing. Then Joab brutally and deceitfully kills him. No warning, no reason is given, and no justification is given. Joab slits Amasa’s stomach open and then just rides off leaving Amasa to wallow in his own blood. Amasa truly got the “kiss of death”.
Note: The Hebrew is unclear what exactly is meant in 20:8. Matthew Henry makes as good a guess as any: “He girded his coat about him, that it might not hang in his way, and girded his belt upon his coat, that his sword might be the readier to his hand; he also put his sword in a sheath too big for it that, whenever he pleased, it might, upon a little shake, fall out, as if it fell by accident, so he might take it into his hand, unsuspected, as if he were going to return it into the scabbard.” (Henry, p. 355).
Note: Again, David is made to look bad, by the actions of Joab. Joab again defies David’s orders and wishes (19:13, 18:11-15). Joab’s motives seem simple enough. He wants his old job back and probably thinks Amasa is either disloyal or incompetent and most of all a threat to his position. Joab killed Abner for revenge (against David’s wishes), the rebel Absalom was killed (against David’s wishes), and now Amasa is killed seemingly for personal rivalry (against David’s wishes).
>>>> Re-read II Samuel 20:12-13.
Q Why did the men finally move on and follow Abishai and Joab?
An = Merely because the body was removed from their sight. Out of sight, out of mind.
Note: The world’s highways are strewn with the bodies of Amasas. Many men have died or been ruined, merely because they stood in the way of another’s political prestige, power, or position. When certain types of people are threatened with the loss of their position or power, watch your back.
Q Who does this remind you of in I Samuel?
An = Saul in his jealousy of David. David meant Saul no harm and never once harmed Saul but David was seen as a threat and so was constantly attacked.
Q What is the difference between David, Abner and Amasa? Why was David spared?
An = God was protecting and helping David or he would have been just another “Amasa”.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 20:15-22.
Q Who talks Joab out of destroying an entire city in order to get to Sheba?
An = A woman saves the city. They would have all died unless this woman had taken the initiative and wisely counseled the city to eliminate Sheba and Sheba alone. Again, Matthew Henry, wisely says: “Though a man be the head, it does not therefore follow that he has the monopoly of the brains, and therefore he ought not, by any … law, to have the monopoly of the crown.” (Henry, p. 355). By the way, Matthew Henry died in 1704. You could not accuse the author of II Samuel of being “sexist”. Remember the other “wise woman” of chapter 14. There the king himself is quite well disposed to listen to the wisdom of the “wise woman of Tekoa”.
Q Does this chapter strike you as excessively violent?
An = It certainly is not the best chapter to read to small children just before they go to bed. There is the brutal murder of Amasa writhing in his own blood and the beheading of Sheba. Sheba is thrown over the wall without his body.
Q Is life this brutal sometimes?
An = Yes it is. The Bible does not speak of “Disneyland” and sweet, unrealistic portrayal of the reality of human nature and human action. The Bible is brutally honest and brutally realistic about how human beings act.
Note: One other point on an allegorical level: Sheba’s head could represent the sin in our lives that must be cut off and disposed of if we wish to save our entire lives (Mark 9:43-48).
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 20:23-26.
Q Who winds up with the top general position in David’s kingdom?
An = Joab does. The Bible is realistic about what happens to people who brutally keep themselves in power. Remember, David is spared the fate of an “Amasa” because God protects him.
Q Is David spared the fate of being “double-crossed” by the actions of one of his subordinates?
An = David is “Joabed”, and so will you be. It will happen to you and you will look bad and be totally innocent.
Q Did Saul look great to everyone in Israel but inwardly was corrupt and a murderer?
Q Did David look innocent of the deaths of Abner, Absalom, and Amasa?
An = Is it wise is to “not judge” unless we really know the facts. I know I am going to be a lot slower to place “motives” on people when I really do not know their hearts or their true motives.
Note: In closing, before I pray, pick someone in leadership that you know that you have been talking about and judging and ask God to forgive you for “prejudging”. It may very well be that the individual you are judging is being “Joabed”. You never know.