Scripture Daily

Context No. 4199 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

Context · Reflection

2 Samuel 2:27-32: in context

27Joab said, “As God lives, if you had not spoken, surely then in the morning the people would have gone away, and not each followed his brother.” 28So Joab blew the trumpet; and all the people stood still and pursued Israel no more, and they fought no more. 29Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah; and they passed over the Jordan, and went through all Bithron, and came to Mahanaim. 30Joab returned from following Abner; and when he had gathered all the people together, nineteen men of David’s and Asahel were missing. 31But David’s servants had struck Benjamin and Abner’s men so that three hundred sixty men died. 32They took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was in Bethlehem. Joab and his men went all night, and the day broke on them at Hebron.

This passage records the sad end of a battle, not against a foreign enemy, but between the followers of David and the followers of Saul's house, Israelite against Israelite, brother against brother. Men die on both sides, including Joab's own brother Asahel, and at last Joab sounds the trumpet, and the people stop and pursue no more. The fighting ceases, but only after needless blood has been shed among God's own people.

There is grief woven through this account. This was civil strife, kinsmen killing kinsmen. Just before, Abner had cried out, shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know it will be bitter in the end? The tragedy of strife among brothers is that it devours the very people who should be united, and its end is only bitterness and loss.

Strife between brothers, whether in a family, a community, or a church, devours and wounds those who should stand together, and it leaves only bitterness behind. Abner's question still stands: shall the sword devour forever? The call is to lay down the fighting, to sound the trumpet that halts the strife, before more is lost.

Is there strife between me and those who ought to be my brothers, a conflict that only devours and embitters, and will I heed Abner's question, shall the sword devour forever, laying down the fighting before more is needlessly lost?

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