2 Samuel 17:21-29: a reflection

21After they had departed, they came up out of the well and went and told King David; and they said to David, “Arise and pass quickly over the water; for thus has Ahithophel counseled against you.” 22Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they passed over the Jordan. By the morning light there lacked not one of them who had not gone over the Jordan. 23When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, arose, and went home to his city, set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father. 24Then David came to Mahanaim. Absalom passed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him. 25Absalom set Amasa over the army instead of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man whose name was Ithra the Israelite, who went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab’s mother. 26Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead. 27When David had come to Mahanaim, Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, 28brought beds, basins, earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parched grain, beans, lentils, roasted grain, 29honey, butter, sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David and for the people who were with him to eat; for they said, “The people are hungry, weary, and thirsty in the wilderness.”

David is at a low point, fleeing for his life from his own son Absalom, arriving in the wilderness with his people hungry, weary, and thirsty. And in that hard hour, three men show up, Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai, and they come not with speeches but with supplies: beds, bowls, wheat and barley, flour, beans and lentils, honey, curds, sheep, and cheese, because, they said, the people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.

Notice the shape of their kindness. It is intensely practical. They do not send word of sympathy from a distance; they show up with the actual things exhausted people need, food to eat, beds to sleep on, provision for the body. In David's most vulnerable moment, God's care reaches him through friends who arrive with their arms full of practical help.

That is worth noticing about how God often provides, and about how we can be his hands. When someone is at a low point, weary and depleted, what helps is frequently not our words but our practical kindness, the meal brought over, the concrete need met, the showing up with arms full. If someone you know is hungry, weary, and thirsty in their own wilderness right now, consider being a Shobi or a Barzillai: not offering sympathy from afar, but arriving with the actual help they need. And when you are the weary one, watch for God's care coming through the practical kindness of others.

Lord, in David's lowest hour you provided through friends who came with practical help. When others are weary and depleted, make me the kind of friend who shows up with concrete kindness, not just sympathy from afar. And when I am the weary one, open my eyes to your care coming through the hands of others.