The Death of Ishbosheth
4Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news came about Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel; and his nurse picked him up and fled. As she hurried to flee, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. 5The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went and came at about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, as he took his rest at noon. 6They came there into the middle of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they struck him in the body: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. 7Now when they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him, killed him, beheaded him, and took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night. 8They brought the head of Ishbosheth to David to Hebron, and said to the king, “Behold, the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life! Yahweh has avenged my lord the king today of Saul, and of his offspring.” 9David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As Yahweh lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity, 10when someone told me, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ thinking that he brought good news, I seized him and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news. 11How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed, should I not now require his blood from your hand, and rid the earth of you?” 12David commanded his young men, and they killed them, cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried it in Abner’s grave in Hebron.
People know well what the ones they love enjoy. Some do their utmost to give without holding anything back, while others demand sacrifices of the other person to satisfy themselves. Because love cannot be one-sided, a relationship like that does not last long. A relationship of mutual trust and respect can be a good influence not only on the two people involved but on many others as well. A relationship without mutual respect, however, not only cannot last; it inevitably wears down a person’s sense of their own worth. A problem that could easily be solved with a positive outlook becomes hard once the relationship goes wrong: since we can no longer convey what is in our hearts, misunderstandings arise over the smallest things, and we run into trouble.
Human relationships, after all, are formed by words and deeds. Someone who considers and embraces others, as though always willing to give way, does not become insignificant; such a person becomes generous, considerate, and big-hearted. A relationship in which only one person keeps giving and sacrificing can last a long time when the one receiving has the good character to be truly grateful. Sadly, though, in most one-sided relationships the one receiving has grown used to receiving, or is even stingy in return. Such relationships grow more neglected and indifferent with time, and eventually the two cannot help drifting apart.
Trust and affection build up in a relationship when both people give and receive. Whatever the relationship, keeping it alive takes unceasing effort, and only when we give the other person reason to trust us can we keep it healthy. Many unseen parts must be firmly bound together for a relationship to be good. That is how important it is both to show our sincerity and to recognize the sincerity of others.
Human relationships that understand and embrace the other person matter this much, and it matters every bit as much that God’s people know his will and serve him as they should. We are receiving God’s one-sided love. If we live as those who receive unconditional love, always thinking about how to show our thanks, God will rejoice greatly.
Israel knew that they had received God’s one-sided love. They knew that God had used Joseph’s life to make Israel into one people, and Moses’ life to bring about the exodus. After leading them into the wilderness, he showed them great grace through the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud, and he protected them by holding back the attacks of the nations. He raised up many prophets and judges and gave them chances to repent of their sins. God did not bless them because the people served him well; he poured out his one-sided love because he had brought them out of Egypt in order to be their God.
The people of Israel knew this love of God, yet they used him for the sake of their life in the world. Had they obeyed him more while their relationship with God was good, they would have received many blessings; but, taking his love for granted, they fell into sin. Each time they sinned, God showed them mercy through the prophets and gave them chance after chance to repent, and before such a God they lost all sense of guilt. They forgot that endless forgiveness ends at last in judgment. Had they realized that God’s deep love was patience, they would also have known that his wrath was soon to come. God is patient to the very end, but when he sees no hope of their turning back, he blots out even the traces they leave, as if washing them away with water. He is a God to be greatly feared.
Parents give love to their children, but they also want love in return. They take it for granted that they will sacrifice for their children, yet they find fulfillment and happiness when the children are truly thankful for their labor. When children appreciate their parents’ sacrifice, show gratitude and respect, and try to give love back, the labor of raising them becomes a delight. With children who take everything they receive for granted, parents still fulfill their duties as parents, but without joy, delight, or fulfillment. This applies not only to parents and children but to every human relationship: a relationship bound only by duty is never love. Nothing is as empty as a relationship of mere obligation, without love, care, and consideration.
The people of Israel treated God not as a father but as a deity. Though they had experienced his mercy and his miracles, they could not give up their own righteousness, and so they served him as an idol, to be used only when they needed him. God is not far away. Because he was always with Israel, he protected them before they even called when they were in trouble, and he rebuked them when they took the path of sin. God labored to be their Father. Israel, however, lived only for themselves. They offered sacrifices to God so that they might do well in the world, and once their prayers were answered, they all too easily committed the sin of leaving him. People like that may prosper for a while, but they will spend their lives repenting over and over.
2 Samuel 22:44
44You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people. You have kept me to be the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known will serve me.
David is the one who understood God’s deep love and lived as his child. Even in suffering he did not forget God’s grace or turn away from God’s purpose for him. To strive not to sin against God even in hardship is a faith that is hard to keep in a world ruled by Satan. David believed that God is the owner of heaven and earth, the First and the Last, whose being is absolute. Someone who lives with God as Abba, Father, as David did, and someone who serves him as a deity for their own sake likely have faith of a different order. Because the two have different destinations and different aims in life, their lives cannot help but come to entirely different ends.
Those who live for themselves cannot receive God’s protection; standing defenseless before Satan, they cannot escape death, like Abner. But David, who knew that God is real, had the remarkable experience of seeing his enemies sink by their own doing, without his having to kill them with his own hand.
2 Samuel 4:1
1When Saul’s son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.
When Ishbosheth heard that Abner, who had left threatening to hand Israel over to David, had died in Hebron, he was badly shaken. Abner had taken Saul’s concubine and still carried himself boldly, so the news of his death was like a warning that Ishbosheth too might soon die. From Ishbosheth’s point of view, Abner’s going over to David was already a disaster. But the moment he heard that Abner had been murdered, David seemed to him so formidable that he was gripped by fear. Believing that David had killed Abner, he despaired over his own position, with no strength to hold back an attack from David. Still, he had two captains, Baanah and Rechab, who were guarding him, and Ishbosheth relied on them with all his heart.
Sadly, though, Baanah and Rechab, the very men Ishbosheth trusted and relied on so much, were already plotting to betray him. Once they decided Ishbosheth was of no use to them, they watched only for a chance to kill the king. Unaware that they were waiting for their moment, Ishbosheth fell into his midday sleep, and Baanah and Rechab killed the sleeping king and fled to David. Had they known David’s character, they would not have murdered the king. Thinking that if they, captains of Israel, came empty-handed, David would not receive them, they could not let go of their greed. Had they understood even a little what kind of man David was, who never took revenge even while Saul hunted him, they would not have made such a wicked choice.
Believers think that to be blessed by God they must offer him their devotion. So, like Baanah and Rechab, they prepare offerings of devotion that are merely human, without ever imagining that this is sin. Knowing nothing of the faith and faithfulness God accepts, they offer him false loyalty and false service. They have not met the God who shows himself merciful to the merciful, perfect to the perfect, pure to the pure, and contrary to the crooked.
Just as carrying Ishbosheth’s head to David was sin, so devotion, offerings, prayer, and praise offered without faith are sin. God accepts the service of those who have received Jesus Christ, live by his word, and offer themselves with a faith that has nothing false in it. Baanah and Rechab thought David would be pleased to hear they had killed Ishbosheth. But David did not want Ishbosheth’s severed head; he wanted a living man, who, though an enemy, could still have the chance to repent and turn back.
People present God with a faith that is attractively wrapped and beg him for blessing. It is like offering him Ishbosheth’s severed head and pleading for a reward because they prepared it with care, thinking he would like it. Of course, the world values the lavish wrapping of a gift, and the form of having paid one’s courtesies even without sincerity, more than the hearts of those who give and receive it. Such outward show ends up pouring more money and care into wrapping that will only be torn off than into what is inside, but God looks not at the outward appearance but at the heart. Baanah and Rechab ran all night by the way of the Arabah, the shortcut to Hebron, to bring Ishbosheth’s head to David quickly.
Having no idea what kind of faith David had, they presumably expected praise and reward. Expecting him to rejoice and reward them once he heard they had killed his enemy, they pressed hard toward Hebron. Yet although they had achieved the death of David’s enemy, they were put to death for the sin of despising God and David. God cares less about results than about the hearts, words, and actions of the people carrying out the work, because when the process is good, the result is good. So in the work of the church, what matters is not getting things done quickly but having good people lead it in God’s way.
David knew well that Baanah and Rechab had killed Ishbosheth not for God but for their own glory. Those who, like these two, live for themselves rather than for God will surely pay the price of that sin.
2 Samuel 22:48-49
48even the God who executes vengeance for me, who brings down peoples under me, 49who brings me away from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man.
Ishbosheth’s death was good news for David. But even though the two men had run all night by the shortcut, they had killed Ishbosheth out of their own greed, and for that David could not spare them. The fruit of the wicked is the breaking of God’s law, and for that reason it comes under judgment. People of faith believe that God is the one who takes vengeance on their behalf and will one day make their enemies submit. David spent his life worshiping God, and that gave him the trust that God would lift him up above his adversaries and protect him, however violent the man who sought to harm him.
Athletes who cross the finish line first are still disqualified if they have not kept the rules. If they do not compete by the rules laid down, they receive no recognition, however fast they finish. Our faith is no different. Someone may seem to have given their whole life in service, but if they do not keep the law God has laid down, they cannot be saved.
That is because what God wants is not religious routine but faith in Christ. No athlete enters a competition without knowing its rules. To win a medal, athletes master the rules thoroughly. If even in the world people keep the rules to win a medal, how could God’s people, who say they are bound for heaven, live as they please because they do not know the law? Like athletes who stake their whole lives on a single medal and train for it, you must know the word of Scripture for your salvation and live it out.
Pastors who teach the word to their congregations are like those who drill athletes over and over so they will not make mistakes in competition. Athletes must compete as they were trained if they are to win a medal. However much they train, if they break the rules of the game, the training is wasted and they will not receive the medal they want. Victory or defeat rests entirely on the athletes. It is the athlete who stands on the podium and receives the medal, and the athlete who enjoys its glory, so the athlete must also bear responsibility for the outcome. No one can blame someone else for the result of their own race.
If you do not know the word accurately, you will be unable to see through a false gospel even when you hear one, and therefore you cannot walk the right path of truth. We must know the Bible if we are to discern pastors who twist the truth as they preach it. Since you cannot excuse yourself before God by saying you met the wrong pastor and never heard the truth, or that the world kept you too busy to follow the Lord well, your faith now is yours to answer for. Salvation comes not through someone else’s faith but through your own.
2 Samuel 4:11
11How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed, should I not now require his blood from your hand, and rid the earth of you?”
David was furious with Baanah and Rechab, who had run all night carrying Ishbosheth’s head, and asked how they could kill the anointed king in his own bed. They had done what they thought was right, but their reasoning itself was evil, so they could not help but sin. If what is recorded in 1 Samuel was David’s refining, 2 Samuel tells of David’s enemies being judged one by one. Because wicked men killed David’s enemies to satisfy their own greed, David was avenged without getting blood on his hands. Yet each time someone took revenge on his behalf, we find David mourning his enemies’ deaths. He gained from their greed, but every time, he refused to pardon those who had avenged him.
Why, even after the house of Saul had fallen and David had become king, did God keep showing him the same kind of event again and again?
It is God’s promise that if David goes on loving him and living with a deep understanding of his word, God will keep helping him in the days ahead. In the prayer Jesus taught us, we ask God to forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, to lead us not into temptation, and to deliver us from evil. David put into practice this very prayer, that God would forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Only when we have first forgiven those who sinned against us can we receive God’s forgiveness.
If, like David, we believe that God alone is our shield, our fortress, and our strength, we cannot help but admit that we stand before him as small and insignificant as an ant. David did not take revenge, because he believed that only God can forgive and that even the lives of his enemies belong to God. He forgave those who had sinned against him out of such genuine faith, and that is why God himself judged the house of Saul on David’s behalf.
Perhaps David’s faith that God would one day avenge him, if he trusted God and endured, ran deeper than his resolve to forgive his enemies. As we watch God look on that faith and take vengeance for David, we too must hold the same faith he did. All of Saul’s descendants died, and only Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, survived. Mephibosheth lived even as Saul’s family was wiped out, because God kept the promise that David and Jonathan had made to each other.
Knowing that David had been chosen as king, Jonathan shielded him from King Saul’s attacks when David was in trouble and saved his life. Jonathan’s faith, which strove to live a good life, saved his son Mephibosheth. Jonathan shows us how much a parent’s faith matters. Whether your faith is genuine, or a false faith held only to receive blessings, it is God who will decide.
Friends, whether you serve God faithfully with a sincere heart or with a false one, whatever kind of life you live, it takes a great deal of time, sacrifice, and effort. Whatever outcome you meet, it costs that much time and labor. If every way of living demands a set measure of time and effort, then we ought at least to reach a good outcome. God made both Saul and David king, but their ends were different. That too was Saul’s and David’s choice, the result of what each of them chose. Saul did not give up what he should have given up, while David resolutely put away whatever was sin before God; that is why their outcomes came to light as good and evil.
With David’s victory, the war between the two houses came to an end. All David did was endure in faith until God brought his refining to a close, yet God established him as a great king. Perhaps, in his suffering, it was less that he resolved to endure in faith than that he had no choice but to bear it so as not to sin against God. To be honest, I think David did not forgive his enemies out of love for them; he could not kill them, because God is the master of life. When we know God’s character as it truly is, we can have an upright faith. God praised David, who had such faith, and gave him the united kingdom as a gift.
Now that he had received both the kingdom and the throne, all that remained for David was to carry out God’s will and lead the people before God. That would not be easy either, but if he went on relying on God and loving the nation and its people as he did now, he would become a wise king after God’s own heart.
If you have faith like David’s, you can always ask God for help and receive his answer. I hope, then, that you will have an upright and enduring faith.