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Context No. 1742 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 2:36-41: in context

36The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and live there, and don’t go anywhere else. 37For on the day you go out and pass over the brook Kidron, know for certain that you will surely die. Your blood will be on your own head.” 38Shimei said to the king, “What you say is good. As my lord the king has said, so will your servant do.” Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days. 39At the end of three years, two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. They told Shimei, saying, “Behold, your slaves are in Gath.” 40Shimei arose, saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his slaves; and Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath. 41Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had come again.

Solomon summons Shimei, who had once cursed David, and gives him a clear condition for his life: build a house in Jerusalem and live there, and never leave the city. On the day you cross the brook Kidron, Solomon warns, you will surely die; your blood will be on your own head. Shimei agrees; it is a fair arrangement, and he lives in Jerusalem for a long time. But after three years, when two of his slaves run away to Gath, Shimei saddles his donkey and goes after them, crossing the very boundary he was told never to cross.

Shimei's ruin is a study in trading much for little. He had been given his life on one clear condition: stay within the city, never cross the boundary. It was a generous arrangement, and for three years he kept it. But then two slaves ran away, and to recover them, Shimei crossed the line, riding out of the city and back over the Kidron, the boundary that carried a death sentence. He forfeited his life for the sake of two runaway slaves. Whatever the slaves were worth, they were not worth his life; and yet, when the lesser thing pulled at him, he crossed the clear line he had been warned never to cross. There is a picture of sin's folly here. Sin often works exactly this way: it draws us to cross a boundary we know we must not cross, for the sake of something far smaller than what we stake on it. We know the line; we have been warned; and then a lesser desire, a runaway slave, some small gain or pleasure, pulls at us, and we cross the line to grasp it, trading something precious for something trivial. Shimei did not set out to forfeit his life; he set out to recover two slaves, and forgot, in the pull of that small aim, the boundary that his life depended on. So we, chasing some small thing, can cross a line that costs us far more than the thing was worth. The wisdom this warns us toward is to keep the boundary in view when the lesser thing pulls, to remember what we truly stake, and not to cross for a trifle a line we were told, for our own good, never to cross.

When some small desire pulls at me toward a line I know I must not cross, do I keep in view what I truly stake, or do I, like Shimei chasing two runaway slaves, forget the boundary and cross it for the sake of something far smaller than what it costs me?

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