2 Samuel is names after the prophet who anointed David and guided him in living for God....what a huge mark Samuel made in David. David loves and trusts the Lord.
our chronological reading is going to pop us around a bit.....Chronicles and Kings record the King of Israel 's reigns...so hold on tight for our April readings.
2 Samuel opens with a little liar reporting Saul 's death to David. This fellow was looking for some type of reward for killing Saul.....1 Samuel 31:3,4 shows the true account of how Saul threw himself on his sword. The guy posed as one of Israel's enemies...an Amalekite...David felt that since God anointed Saul, only God had the right to depose Saul....David has the liar killed......Remember that this is a different culture.
David is anointed king over Judah.....this is a Southern tribe and very large. there is still Civil War and tribe fighting among tribe. Ish-Bosheth, Saul's son rules over the rest. OK it now begins to get confusing to me as it relates to the "characters"...
Joab is the son of Zeruiah, David's half sister
Abner is Saul's cousin
Abishai is Joab 's brother
Asahel is another brother
Ish-Bosheth is Saul 's son
Abner suggests to Joab that there be a dagger fight, 12 on 12...this is kind of like how they pick representatives to fight when David fought Goliath.....Abner kills Asahel. War continues between David and Saul....David continued to prevail.
Note that at the beginning of Chapter 3, David begins the polygamy thing. This is going to bring much distress to him..Ahmet goes over to David's side and brings him Michal whom David was betrothed to. Joab murders Abner and David mourns.
Ish-Bosheth is then murdered in his own bedroom and David has the men that murdered him killed....so much blood is shed
Look what comes up from the depths of the sea.
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I'M BACCCKK!!!
ReplyDeletegoing out of town has really gotten me behind....
Loved reading the story of David and Goliath....knew the names but did not know the story......
Saul seems to be a little jealous of David....always trying to kill him.....but David does not react to Saul the same way......
Kinda weird how Saul died.....first it says that he fell on his own sword, then some man comes up to David and tells him that he killed Saul himself....my complete idiot's guide to Bible says the man probably made up story and thought he would get a reward from David....but what he got was himself killed.....he should have kept his mouth shut....
Now all this killing continues.....tell me if I have this right.....Abner and Joab were gonna have a kinda of tough man test, but Joab's brother came...he was Asahel.....Abner killed him by stabbing sword all the way through his stomach and it came out of his back.....gross....then Abner was getting on good sides with David, and Joab did not like this because he killed his brother....so Joab killed Abner.....David did not like this because it was an act of anger and revenge... so David cursed Joab and his house.....then two other men killed Abner's soldier, Ish-Bosheth....and took his head to David thinking they would be rewarded....but they got themselves executed for doing it.....
My question.....David had men killed who had killed others for anger or revenge....or those who lied about killing.....why did he not have Joab killed for killing Abner?
Hopefully tomorrow I will be caught on the Psalms.......
So glad you are back, Bonnie! My such notes say that while David opposed the murder, he allowed it to remain unpunished because 1) to punish Joab could cause the troops to rebel 2) Joab was David's nephew, and any harsh treatment could cause family problems 3)Joab was from the tribe of Judah, and David didn't want rebellion from his own tribe4) to get rid of Judah would mean losing a skilled and competent commander who had been invaluable in strengthening his army......so how is that for some theories?
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