How much more—when wicked men have killed an innocent man in his own house and on his own bed—should I not now demand his blood from your hand and rid the earth of you!” – 2 Samuel 4:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 20, 2016): 2 Samuel 4

Martin Luther King once commented that “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Maybe the part of the problem is that we find out too late who are real friends are. But I understand King’s words. The things that my enemies have said about me hurts, but it is the silence of the ones that I thought were my friend’s that is hard to forget.

There seems to be two things at work in David’s mind in this passage. The first is the very definite belief that Ish-Bosheth, or any other descendants of Saul, were not his enemies. The Philistines were his enemies, the inhabitants of the city of Jebus (later known better as Jerusalem) were his enemies, and the Ammonites were his enemies. But the descendants of Saul were his brothers and sisters, because like him they were the children of the Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And the children of the patriarchs could never be his enemies. And David needed to send that message to all of Israel. Ish-Bosheth was an innocent man.

But the problem was that that was an extremely unusual view of how the world works. Usually, when rule over a country changed houses, all possible claimants to the throne had to be dealt with – and that usually meant that they would be killed. Only then could the throne be considered secure for the new family. There is no doubt that the men who murdered Ish-Bosheth simply assumed that David’s beliefs would echo that of the other nations that surrounded Israel. For the success of the House of David to be assured, then those who remained from the House of Saul must die. Unfortunately, the men obviously did not know David, because David had consistently refused to raise his own hand against Saul or any of his house. David was king only because God said so. And if God had made him king, then no one – even the descendants of Saul – could take that away from him.

Which brings us to the second thing that might have been on David’s mind, the question of whether he had been vocal enough as the friend of the House of Saul. Was it possible that the death of Ish-Bosheth happened because of David had been silent in his defense of the House of Saul? We might never know the answer to that question. But the next words out of David’s mouth and the execution of these two want-to-be heroes would send a clear message throughout the land. The only enemies of David were the ones that existed outside of Israel. Inside, among the tribes of Israel, there were only friends and family. And David was not going to be a silent friend anymore.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 1

Personal Note: Happy Birthday to my grandsons William and Henry - two years old today.