This is one of those stories that gives some people fits. It just doesn’t seem to be fair to the descendants of King Saul, that they paid the price for their ancestor's sins. That can be a tough issue. But we would say there is not enough information for us to make a decision about this matter. We don’t know what animosity Saul’s kin had for the Gibeonites. So I am not going to try to explain the situation. I trust the leading of the Lord in David’s life and know that this fit God’s definition of justice.
Further, remember the situation back in Joshua’s
time when the Gibeonites were granted their special standing in Israel (Josh.
9). Joshua and the elders of Israel made
a treaty with them, one that was powerful enough to cause Israel to come to the
defense of the Gibeonites in the battle against the southern confederacy (Josh.
10). What Saul had done was, in effect,
to take the innocent lives of special citizens of Israel. It might be akin to Israel’s protection of
the Druze and Bedouins who live in Israel today.
But I would like to “suggest”
that there was someone, a relative of King Saul, who did bear a grudge about
this matter. That man was Shimei, the
man who threw stones at King David as he fled Jerusalem in the rebellion of
Absalom (2 Sam. 16:8). It makes sense to
me that the account of Chapter 21 happened at an earlier time in David’s
reign. That’s what we seem to have in
the entire chapter and in other chapters in this part of 2 Samuel.
What Shimei said as he taunted David was, “The
LORD has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place
you have reigned; and the LORD has delivered the kingdom into the hand of
Absalom your son. So now you are caught
in your own evil, because you are a bloodthirsty man!”
You may think Shimei is talking about the time
of civil war, when David ruled from Hebron.
This was a terrible time. But it
would be hard to pin that on David. It
was a war. Men on both sides died. There was a strong case that Abner was as
much the instigator of that war as David and Joab. Further, David executed the men who
assassinated Saul’s son Ishbosheth, even as he had executed the man who claimed
to have taken Saul’s life in a “mercy killing.”
Thus, in my view, Shimei’s grudge against
David over the killing of Saul’s kin makes more sense. Of course, Shimei’s “righteous anger” only
lasted as long as he thought he had the upper hand against David. When David returned, Shimei acted more like the
spineless coward he was, pleading for his life, only to lose it when his pride
again came to the surface in the days of Solomon (1 Ki. 2:36-46). How appropriate are Solomon’s words before
Shimei was killed: “But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David
shall be established before the LORD forever” (1 Ki. 2:45). Shimei never did
accept the rule of David and his line.
No matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment