Scripture Daily

Context No. 352 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

Context · Reflection

2 Samuel 19:21-25: in context

21But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD’s anointed?” 22David said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should be adversaries to me today? Shall any man be put to death today in Israel? For don’t I know that I am king over Israel today?” 23The king said to Shimei, “You will not die.” The king swore to him. 24Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither groomed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace. 25When he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?”

David is coming home. Absalom's rebellion has collapsed, David is being restored to his throne, and as he crosses back over the Jordan, the people who had turned against him come out to make their peace. Among them is Shimei, the man who, during David's lowest moment as he fled the city, had walked alongside him throwing stones and cursing him as a murderer. Now Shimei falls before the returning king and begs forgiveness.

Abishai, one of David's fierce commanders, sees an easy call: surely this man should be executed, he says, for he cursed the LORD's anointed. And by every rule of the ancient world, he is right; a king restored to power would be expected to make an example of the man who had publicly cursed him. But David refuses, and the reason he gives is revealing. Should anyone be put to death in Israel today, he asks, for do I not know that I am king over Israel today? His restored security is exactly what frees him to be merciful. Because he knows his position is settled, he does not need Shimei's death to feel like a king. A day of homecoming and vindication, he decides, is no day for executions. He swears to Shimei that he will not die.

That is a hard and beautiful discipline, and it usually gets tested at the moment we least expect to fail it, the moment we finally have the upper hand. When I have been restored, vindicated, or handed power over someone who wronged me, do I use the moment to settle the score, or, secure enough in where I stand, can I do what David did and let the day of my restoration be a day of mercy instead of death?

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