Episode Details

Have You Bent the Knee?

2 Samuel 20, 11/06/2022, Remsen Bible Fellowship

Introduction

Death, power plays, political intrigue, and kingdom and covenant in crisis. Folks often think of the Old Testament as a boring collection of books with meaningless history and lots of lists of people and names. And while there are plenty of lists, even those lists are set in place to help us understand the background of the intense drama which unfolds before us in the pages of the text. When you read the Bible, it is helpful to do so imaginatively. Remember that the stories are real stories that take place in the lives of real people. Try to set yourself there and start asking questions. What would it be like to be part of a kingdom in political turmoil? How would you feel if your son had rebelled against you, and was now dead? These kinds of questions help us get into the skin of a story, and then spark our interest as we ask more objective questions, like: what is the message the author is trying to communicate? What lessons should a reader 30 centuries removed take away from this narrative?

This morning we need to remember where we are in David’s story. He is a man approaching 70 years old, very near the end of his life. His son Solomon is the intended next king, but nothing has been formalized yet. In the presence of David’s weakness, and with a plausible claim to the throne himself, his son Absalom stages a coup, in which many high ranking officials, including David’s closest counselor, Ahithophel, take part.

By the end of chapter 19 that rebellion has been put down. After Joab led the military victory, and then disregarded David’s orders by slaying Absalom, there needed to again be a king. David sends messengers to the people of Judah, and they bring him back to Jerusalem. Things are back on level footing, right?

Well, maybe. The problem is that David’s move with the people of Judah created more narrative tension - he displaced Joab as commander of his army with the rebel leader Amasa. And he further exacerbated the division between Judah and the rest of the nation. And so we come into chapter 20.

A Sad and Familiar Situation, v1-3

Now there happened to be there a worthless man, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite. And he blew the trumpet and said,

“We have no portion in David, and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse;

every man to his tents, O Israel!”

2 So all the men of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah followed their king steadfastly from the Jordan to Jerusalem.

3 And David came to his house at Jerusalem. And the king took the ten concubines whom he had left to care for the house and put them in a house under guard and provided for them, but did not go in to them. So they were shut up until the day of their death, living as if in widowhood.

This feels like another verse of the same song, doesn’t it? A worthless man rises up and calls the people of Israel to himself. In 19:43, the people of Israel are contending with the people of Judah, saying “we have ten shares in David!” But, having lost that argument, Sheba’s rallying cry becomes, “we have no share in David!” Every man to his tents, this is the time for war.

And the text tells us that “all the men of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri.” Now all Israel withdrew probably doesn’t mean that he pulled the entire army of Israel together, given what follows. But their loyalties again shifted away from David and to a challenger. They would be happy for Sheba’s rebellion to be successful, they would not remain loyal to David.

The effect of this upon David’s household can be seen in verse three. This verse is loaded with a sad irony. David, who had left these ten concubines in Jerusalem to take car