2 Samuel 20
One thing I have noticed about David is that his life is never really easy. He gained the enmity of his first patron, David's predecessor King Saul. He then has a fairly long campaign against most of the neighbouring nations, his son killed his brother, then attempted a coup.
David now has another rebellion on his hands, this time led by a guy called Sheba - he incited Israel to desert king David saying they had no claim on the king and he had no claim on them. At this a lot of Israelites deserted David.
In Jerusalem, David took back command of his palace and he locked up the concubines that he had left in charge because Absalom had slept with them all - they were treated as widows, given provisions from the king but they never saw the king again.
In response to Sheba David ordered Amasa his new army commander to muster the fighting men of Judah.
Some of the men that Amasa had roused were Joab and his brothers. Joab went to greet Amasa (who had been given his job) but stabbed him to death.
Joab retook command of the army and pursued Sheba, eventually trapping him in a besieged city while they built a siege ramp.
A wise woman in the city challenged Joab why he was destroying part of the inheritance of Israel, to which Joab replied he was only after Sheba.
The citizens then cut Sheba's head off and chucked it over the wall to the army of Joab and the rebellion was crushed (Perhaps Darth Vader should have paid attention?)
David's other officials incldued Joab in charge of the army, Adoniram was in charge of forced labour, with priests Abiathar and Zadok as priests, Jehoshaphat was recorder and Sheva secretary and Ira was David's personal priest.
One thing I note is that despite the extremely hectic and troubled life that David has lived, he still maintained his faith. With the exception of the incident with Uriah and Bathsheba he has acted with integrity and mercy (compared to a lot of others, some of his actions were a bit iffy from a modern point of view but much less bad than other people of similar times from all accounts).
Some people think that as believers our lives are suddenly really easy, we never have problems or setbacks. That simply is not true - many of the most holy and faith filled people led lives of extraordinary hardship and suffering.
Those who claim that faith is a crutch, I don't hold with that, often faith is more like a shield that helps us to stand when things do go wrong and in the time of trial and testing.
One thing I have noticed about David is that his life is never really easy. He gained the enmity of his first patron, David's predecessor King Saul. He then has a fairly long campaign against most of the neighbouring nations, his son killed his brother, then attempted a coup.
David now has another rebellion on his hands, this time led by a guy called Sheba - he incited Israel to desert king David saying they had no claim on the king and he had no claim on them. At this a lot of Israelites deserted David.
In Jerusalem, David took back command of his palace and he locked up the concubines that he had left in charge because Absalom had slept with them all - they were treated as widows, given provisions from the king but they never saw the king again.
In response to Sheba David ordered Amasa his new army commander to muster the fighting men of Judah.
Some of the men that Amasa had roused were Joab and his brothers. Joab went to greet Amasa (who had been given his job) but stabbed him to death.
Joab retook command of the army and pursued Sheba, eventually trapping him in a besieged city while they built a siege ramp.
A wise woman in the city challenged Joab why he was destroying part of the inheritance of Israel, to which Joab replied he was only after Sheba.
The citizens then cut Sheba's head off and chucked it over the wall to the army of Joab and the rebellion was crushed (Perhaps Darth Vader should have paid attention?)
David's other officials incldued Joab in charge of the army, Adoniram was in charge of forced labour, with priests Abiathar and Zadok as priests, Jehoshaphat was recorder and Sheva secretary and Ira was David's personal priest.
One thing I note is that despite the extremely hectic and troubled life that David has lived, he still maintained his faith. With the exception of the incident with Uriah and Bathsheba he has acted with integrity and mercy (compared to a lot of others, some of his actions were a bit iffy from a modern point of view but much less bad than other people of similar times from all accounts).
Some people think that as believers our lives are suddenly really easy, we never have problems or setbacks. That simply is not true - many of the most holy and faith filled people led lives of extraordinary hardship and suffering.
Those who claim that faith is a crutch, I don't hold with that, often faith is more like a shield that helps us to stand when things do go wrong and in the time of trial and testing.
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