Read 2 Samuel 4:1-12
The consequences of the death of Saul, king of Israel continue in this chapter. But what we are going to see here is a sharp contrast between the standards of behaviour of the fallen, sinful world and the standards that God demands in his kingdom.
The writer starts by setting the scene. The son of the former king Saul is Ish-bosheth and he might have had ambitions to follow his father onto the throne but these were scuppered by his army chief Abner – and we read about that in the previous chapter. And so the Bible tells us that Ish-bosheth lost courage (v1). He was no threat to David as the next king of Israel.
Then we are introduced to a couple of Ish-bosheth’s men who are out to make a name for themselves. The story is broken at this point (v4) by mention of Jonathan’s five-year old son (Saul’s grandson) Mephibosheth (the names get confusing don’t they – but hang in there) and how something had alarmed his nurse so that in her haste to save him from whatever danger he might be in, he fell and became crippled. Why is this here? Of what relevance is it? Well, Mephibosheth will appear later in the story and he will be at the receiving end of David’s generosity and grace. David bore no enmity against Saul’s family at all – in fact he did not really bear any enmity against Saul himself despite Saul’s attempt to kill him. David relied upon God to preserve him, knowing that God had promised him the throne of Israel.
Anyway, back to these two characters who thought they could take advantage of the situation. Usually in ancient warfare if a king was killed then so was all his family. This was to prevent a surviving relative becoming a claimant to the throne and a rallying point for the supporters of the old king. So these two thought they would be doing David a favour by killing the old king’s son, a potential claimant to the throne. And presumably they thought they would be well rewarded for this act.
The Bible portrays them as a less than courageous pair. It has already told us that Ish-bosheth was weak, that he had lost courage. The two snuck into the king’s quarters during siesta time and killed him while he was asleep. And then they went in triumph to David to tell him what they had done and to collect their reward. They were in for a big surprise.
As we have seen, David had no quarrel with Ish-bosheth. He was not a threat to David and David was quite happy to wait for God’s time to get the throne of Israel. God had promised it to him and God will give it to him, but in God’s time. David was not going to try to force the issue.
David lived his life by Kingdom standards, waiting patiently for God and showing grace and mercy to potential enemies. The two assassins lived their lives by the world’s standards, carrying out a sinful act and were driven by greed – and they paid the price for their actions.