So David gave an order to his men, and they killed them. They cut off their hands and feet and hung the bodies by the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-Bosheth and buried it in Abner's tomb at Hebron. – 2 Samuel 4:12

Today's Scripture Reading (May 6, 2022):  2 Samuel 4

Voltaire, the French Enlightenment philosopher, cynically noted that "It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." It is something with which I struggle. I have often described myself as a "reluctant pacifist." Reluctant because there are situations where killing seems to be the only answer. What do you do when a madman threatens the lives of tens, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people? Isn't it better to take the life of one guilty man than allow him to take many innocents' lives? I understand the emotions of many Ukrainians who right now would love to be in a position to take the life of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. And yet, I also see value in every life, even in the life of Mr. Putin. Life is God-given and sacred, and I struggle with our willingness to end it so swiftly. And because every life is valuable, I am at heart a pacifist. I understand the contradiction and have decided to live amid the paradox.

David seems to have held similar ideas. He was at war with Ish-Bosheth and the tribe of Benjamin. I love the M*A*S*H definition of the rules of war. According to the dramedy, rule number one of war is that in war, men, or people, die. And rule number two is that doctors can't change rule number one. There is truth in the observation. David was at war; therefore, people under his command and the command of Ish-Bosheth were going to die. And nothing was going to change the first rule of war. But for David, there was a huge difference between killing a man on the battlefield and killing a man in his bed. In David's mind, one was honorable and sometimes unavoidable, while the other was murder, punishable by both the state and God. A soldier dying in war, or as Voltaire argues, "in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets," was an unavoidable part of war, as distasteful as that might be. But the killing of a king at home in his bed was murder, even if it was the king on the other side of the war. I think David would also have found the killing of civilians to be unthinkable. His morality seemed to have a narrow definition of when killing was allowable

David declared that the killing of Ish-Bosheth was a murder, not a killing that was understandable in the midst of war. Of course, following the dictates of an eye for an eye, killing someone who had participated in a murder was also allowable. And so, the men who executed Ish-Bosheth in his bed are executed by David's men. But beyond the execution of the murderers, the men who murdered the son of Saul were further dishonored by having their bodies hung by the Pool of Hebron. The head of Ish-Bosheth, which the men had brought to David as proof of their crime, is buried honorably in the tomb of his general, Abner, even though Ish-Bosheth had been David's enemy.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 1