26th September 2022 – 1 Kings 2:1-11

1 Kings 2:1-11

When David's time to die drew near, he commanded Solomon his son, saying, “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the Lord may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’

“Moreover, you also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, how he dealt with the two commanders of the armies of Israel, Abner the son of Ner, and Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, avenging in time of peace for blood that had been shed in war, and putting the blood of war on the belt around his waist and on the sandals on his feet. Act therefore according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace. But deal loyally with the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table, for with such loyalty they met me when I fled from Absalom your brother. And there is also with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day when I went to Mahanaim. But when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ Now therefore do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man. You will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol.”

10 Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. 11 And the time that David reigned over Israel was forty years. He reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

 

But what are we to say of David's attitude towards Joab and Shimei? The usual answer given is that David was a child of his age and should not therefore be judged by Christian standards of morality. But this, we think, is too simple a solution. The harsh note in David's words comes from another source, and there is a direct connection between this implacable spirit and his former 'softness' towards the captain of the host. Remember Joab's history. He should have been punished long ago for his atrocious and bloody crimes, but David had failed in his duty as king to maintain law and order and bring him to justice. Whether it was weakness on David's part, or fear of Joab that made him spare the guilty man we may not know; at all events, wittingly or unwittingly, he confused personal feelings with the vindication of the law. Neither fear of Joab or fondness for him should have weighed with him for a moment in the proper discharge of his duty as custodian of the law of God. It is not without significance that, later, the king who neglected to honour the sanctions of the law gave vent to bitter vindictiveness. This has a particular relevance for our time. It has become the custom to vilify our penal laws, particularly those anent corporal punishment, and in the name of enlightened social conscience the idea of retribution must be modified if not excluded from our conception of punishment. This, we are told, is the only civilised and truly humane attitude. But it is precisely this mistaken supposition that is undermining the stability of our social structure and leading to lawlessness and inhumanity. The law, rightly understood, is not a reprehensible thing but fundamental to the true ordering of life, and it is those who uphold its sanctions most faithfully, and not those who through a mistaken sentimentality evade the fulfilment of its inexorable demands, who prove themselves most truly human and humane. We venture to suggest that if David had been strong enough and honourable enough to deal with Joab in accordance with the rightful demands of the law at the time his crimes were committed, the story of his later days would have read very differently and this lamentable vindictiveness would have been absent from the record of the closing scenes of his life.