Scripture Daily

Context No. 1428 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

Context · Reflection

2 Samuel 2:8-14: in context

8Now Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul’s army, had taken Ishbosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim. 9He made him king over Gilead, over the Ashurites, over Jezreel, over Ephraim, over Benjamin, and over all Israel. 10Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. 11The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. 12Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. 13Joab the son of Zeruiah and David’s servants went out, and met them by the pool of Gibeon; and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool and the other on the other side of the pool. 14Abner said to Joab, “Please let the young men arise and compete before us!” Joab said, “Let them arise!”

After Saul's death the kingdom is divided: Abner, Saul's army commander, makes Saul's son Ishbosheth king over the northern tribes, while the house of Judah follows David in Hebron. The two sides meet at the pool of Gibeon and sit down facing each other across the water. Then Abner makes a proposal that sounds almost like sport: let the young men arise and compete before us. Joab agrees, let them arise, and twelve from each side step forward. What begins as a contest for the leaders' entertainment turns at once to slaughter; each man grips his opponent and drives a sword into his side, and they all fall together, igniting a long and bloody civil war.

The chilling thing about this scene is how casually the killing begins. Abner suggests it as if proposing a game, let the young men compete before us, a contest to be watched by the leaders; and within moments twelve young men on each side are dead, and a war is under way that will cost many more lives. What was framed as sport was deadly in earnest, and the light words that set it in motion loosed something that could not be called back. There is a warning here about the rivalries and provocations we treat lightly. Competition, contests of pride, the urge to prove ourselves against a rival, can seem like harmless sport, a game between the leaders' young men; but such things carry more danger than we reckon, and what starts as rivalry for entertainment can escalate into real and lasting harm. The line between a contest and a killing was crossed in an instant at the pool of Gibeon, because the underlying rivalry was real and the men were armed. We do well not to treat our rivalries and provocations as harmless games. The urge to compete, to best an opponent, to answer a challenge, can loose consequences far beyond the light spirit in which it began. Abner and Joab watched a sport become a slaughter; the seeds of a long war were in the game they thought they were merely watching.

Do I treat my rivalries and the urge to prove myself against others as harmless sport, when what begins as light competition can loose real and lasting harm, and am I careful with provocations that could escalate beyond the spirit in which they began?

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