Thoughts on 2 Samuel 3

Today's reading: 2 Samuel 3; 2 Corinthians 6

Abner makes a comment near the beginning of 2 Samuel 3 that I personally think is super helpful in understanding the spiritual state of Israel at this point in time.

"God do so to Abner and more also, if I do not accomplish for David what the Lord has sworn to him, to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan to Beersheba.”

This comes after Ish-bosheth, Saul's son who took the throne after he died in battle, accuses Abner of sleeping with one of his father's concubines. Abner doesn't actually deny the accusation, so I'm not sure if his response is an indignant, "How dare you accuse me of something like that after all I've done for your family," or if he's saying, "So what? After all I've done for your family, and all that I'm continuing to do for you, you're really going to make an issue out of something so minor?" Either way though, as a result of this accusation, Abner is done with Ish-bosheth and declares what I quoted above.

What's really eye-opening about this quote to me is that Abner has clearly long already known that God promised the throne to David and he evidently hasn't cared.

Think about that. Israel is God's people. Saul got the throne by an act/declaration of God through Samuel, and Abner was Saul's top military official. If they were looking to and relying on God for their victories, like they were supposed to be doing, wouldn't you expect that Saul and the top men around him would care about what the Lord had to say? In the past I think my assumption was more so that David being the new king was something of an open secret, that people were somewhat aware of it, but that clearly it wasn't fully public or else the people would stop following Saul and follow David instead. But here we see that Abner not only knew David was anointed king by Samuel, but that the Lord had sworn to give the throne to the house of David from the house of Saul.

Ultimately this begs the question, if Abner was aware that this was the Lord's intention, why is he only now acting on it? And I think the answer is that he just didn't care that much...

It's easy to assume that because Israel was God's chosen people, they clearly cared about Him and what He had to say, but that was really not the case. Throughout the Old Testament, some of the turning away of the people is due to ignorance, but much more often the people are aware of the Lord's commands, and just don't care. As you read the prophets, very seldom are they instructing the people in things they didn't know; much more often they are calling the people to take what they already know seriously.

I'm betting Abner was pretty par for the course. Sure, he knew what the Lord said about Saul and David, but he was Saul's top commander. He had an incredibly high position, immediately under the king, so why would he want to give that up? In the best case scenario, if he hands the kingdom over to David like he tries to in our chapter today, he has to compete with David's current commanders for a position, and he's probably going to wind up subordinate to someone else (i.e. Joab). Maybe more likely though, David might not consider him trustworthy since he used to work for Saul and so might let him live out of gratitude for transferring him the kingdom, but he's probably losing all the authority and accompanying privileges he has enjoyed up to that point under Saul. So he could keep the high status, perks, and lifestyle he has been enjoying, or he could risk throwing it all away to try to be faithful to God, and that's just not worth it to him. It's only when Ish-bosheth makes this accusation (which could have incurred the death penalty for treason as this could be seen as a move for the throne if true) that the calculus swings the other way and it becomes more personally advantageous for Abner to pursue the Lord's will.

So while the people should care about the Lord, and while we get people like David who truly do care about Him, I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of Israelites were no different from the people of any other nation and were much more concerned about their day-to-day well-being than they were with faithfulness to Yahweh, even as Yahweh is promising them that faithfulness with be the best thing for their day-to-day well being.

And typing that out just makes me wonder if Christians as a whole today are all that different from the Israelites back then. Does faithfulness to Yahweh get the top spot, or do I, like Abner, choose to prioritize what I want and what I think is best, even when I know the Lord has called me to something different?