Context No. 3017 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

2 Samuel 20:1-6: in context

1There happened to be there a wicked fellow, whose name was Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjamite; and he blew the trumpet, and said, “We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, Israel!” 2So all the men of Israel went up from following David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah joined with their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem. 3David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody and provided them with sustenance, but didn’t go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood. 4Then the king said to Amasa, “Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be here present.” 5So Amasa went to call the men of Judah together, but he stayed longer than the set time which had been appointed to him. 6David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your lord’s servants and pursue after him, lest he get himself fortified cities, and escape out of our sight.”

A troublemaker named Sheba, a worthless fellow, blows a trumpet and calls Israel away from David: we have no portion in David, no inheritance in the son of Jesse; every man to his tents! And just like that, all the men of Israel leave David to follow Sheba, though Judah stays loyal. David, back in Jerusalem, sees the danger at once and sends his men to pursue Sheba before he can fortify himself.

The thing worth drawing out is the power of a single divisive voice. Sheba, one man with a trumpet and a slogan, we have no portion in David, peels an entire kingdom away from its rightful king. Discontent, given a rallying cry, spreads with alarming speed; it takes only one person willing to sow division to fracture a people already weary and strained. Division is easy to start and hard to heal, and David rightly judged Sheba's revolt as more dangerous than even his own son's had been.

Am I ever the divisive voice, the one whose grievance and slogan pull people apart, or a voice that heals and unites?

Sources

2 Samuel 20:1: "We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, Israel!"
Proverbs 6:19: "[The LORD hates] a false witness who utters lies, and one who sows discord among brothers."
Romans 16:17: "Watch out for those who are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling."