I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 18-19.

I mentioned yesterday that the biblical account tells us that King David had some hostility towards Joab and his brother, Abishai.  The writers of those accounts seem to suggest that David’s animosity towards his nephews was justified, but do not really explain it.  However, today I noticed something I never really thought about that likely plays a role in David’s animosity towards Joab.  When one of his men reported that they had found Absalom hanging by his hair, but still alive, Joab asked why they had not killed him.  Joab said that he would have rewarded him well for doing so.  To which he replied that everyone had heard the king’s order to go easy on Absalom and he would not be willing to face the king’s wrath.  The important point made is that this man said that Joab would be among the first to abandon him when the king found out who killed his son.  So, it appears that Joab had a reputation for encouraging people to stand up for David, but, if they angered David by doing so, he would be among the first to take action against them.  If David was aware of this, and he likely was, he would likely consider it the worst sort of betrayal.

Having said that about Joab, we have the example later in this passage of Joab confronting David about his mourning the death of Absalom while his men wished to celebrate their victory.  So, we see that despite the ill will which David had for Joab, Joab looked out for what he perceived to be David’s best interest.  In this case, Joab was right.  David had selfishly put his mourning the loss of his son ahead of the needs of his men and his nation.  We can sympathize with David’s desire to mourn, but we need to recognize that by doing so he was doing more harm to himself than good.