2 Sam. 14
We have already noticed that 1 Chronicles is silent about the events now before us. In our account David is only incidentally a type of Christ. Here he is seen as especially representing the restored remnant going through the Tribulation with the guilt of the death of the Righteous One. Nevertheless all David's experiences in these chapters also have a direct application to us, because we, like he, are set in a responsible position and are therefore the objects of discipline as David was.
2 Sam. 14 shows us how Joab succeeds in winning David over to himself. We have already noted that Joab never does anything that does not serves his self-interest. If he is embracing David's cause his motive is not affection although he does demonstrate a certain attachment to his master, but because he thinks that David's side is more likely to advance his ambitions. These ambitions did not go so far as to covet the kingdom. Joab was sufficiently shrewd to know that access to the throne was closed to him; his ambition was limited to desiring the place of a "generalissimo," to be minister of war and the king's counselor. If any obstacle to his plans should arise he was quick to overcome it, and if need be even commit a crime.
Above all, Joab sought to make himself indispensable. The best way to achieve this was to cater to the king's weaknesses. When David rid himself of Urijah by placing him in Joab's hands, Joab did not speak a single word of reproach; he acted without hesitation. Guilty David had gained a discreet accomplice, but he is an accomplice who through this very discretion becomes David's master. From now on the king's reputation depends on Joab. Only, Joab's plans are thwarted by divine intervention. God speaks and David acknowledges his guilt; the leprosy, spiritually speaking, instead of remaining hidden is publicly manifested and acknowledged in humiliation and tears not only before God but also before men.
And so, all Joab's plans are foiled, all his selfish interests are set back; he can no longer dominate his master by means of his secret crime; he must find another way to regain his influence. When Rabbah, already cut off from its water supply, was captured, Joab sent this message to David: "Now gather the rest of the people, and encamp against the city and take it: lest I take the city and it he called by my name" (2 Sam. 12:2828Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it: lest I take the city, and it be called after my name. (2 Samuel 12:28)). What disinterestedness! But is not this the means by which he may regain control of the king's heart? David obeys. In the previous chapter we have seen that his victory over Rabbah is no credit to his spiritual instincts. Now Joab again has become indispensable and has regained the control that he had lost.
At the end of 2 Sam. 13 the king was longing for Absalom. This was an unfortunate weakness. Absalom was a murderer; the law of the Lord did not allow David to long after him. The murderer fell into the hands of the avenger of blood, and expiation could not be made except by the blood of the one who had shed blood (Num. 35:3333So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. (Numbers 35:33)). David had demonstrated this in the cases of the Amalekite and Baanah and Rechab. When Absalom returned from his voluntary exile, the sentence ought to have been executed. To spare him would be to add disobedience to transgression. The fact that David had married Maacah, the daughter of Talmai the king of Geshur (Absalom had taken refuge with his grandfather), was already a transgression. Talmai was one of the Canaanite kings spared through the unfaithfulness of the people (Josh. 13:2-32This is the land that yet remaineth: all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri, 3From Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites: (Joshua 13:2‑3)); Israel was forbidden any intermarriage with them (Ex. 34:15-1615Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; 16And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. (Exodus 34:15‑16)). Long before this prohibition was pronounced Abraham's spiritual sense had made it a law for him (Gen. 24:33And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: (Genesis 24:3)). David had used his sovereign power to violate this ordinance instead of obeying the law.
All these humiliating facts ought to have suppressed David's affections; but Joab watches, interested in seeing the king turn aside from the simple path of obedience. "Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom" (2 Sam. 14:11Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom. (2 Samuel 14:1)). He is not a man to let this occasion pass without using to his personal advantage, and so he resorts to an unworthy intrigue in order to lead David to recall the fugitive to Jerusalem. The words he puts in the mouth of the woman of Tekoah lead us to suppose that Joab's hidden motive was that David might designate Absalom as his successor: "Deliver him that smote his brother... and we will destroy the heir also" (2 Sam. 14:77And, behold, the whole family is risen against thine handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the heir also: and so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth. (2 Samuel 14:7)). "Why then hast thou thought such a thing against God's people?" (2 Sam. 14:1313And the woman said, Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? for the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished. (2 Samuel 14:13)). "The man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God" (2 Sam. 14:1616For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God. (2 Samuel 14:16)). In truth, in the words of this woman we can see that Joab had in mind to secure a future position for himself with Absalom, who would certainly be thankful to him for having brought him back to the court.
In all this David was excusable, no doubt, when we think of the natural feelings of a father for his son, but as a servant of God he was guilty. Through the prophet's mouth the Lord had let him know (2 Sam. 12:24-2524And David comforted Bath-sheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the Lord loved him. 25And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord. (2 Samuel 12:24‑25)) which of his sons He had chosen; this son was Solomon, the son of Bathsheba, whom God had called "Jedidiah, the beloved of the Lord." Joab realized that David's heart secretly cherished the thought of having Absalom as his successor, although perhaps David would not even have admitted this desire to himself. Could the king hesitate between God's positive word and Joab's self-seeking insinuations? He ought to have understood that Absalom despite all his outward advantages (2 Sam. 14:25-2725But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. 26And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year's end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king's weight. 27And unto Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar: she was a woman of a fair countenance. (2 Samuel 14:25‑27)), although he was a most handsome man and perhaps just as imposing as Saul, could not be the man according to God's counsels. He had seen his brother Eliab, of whom even Samuel had thought: "Surely Jehovah's anointed is before Him" (1 Sam. 16:66And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord's anointed is before him. (1 Samuel 16:6)), set aside despite his handsome appearance to give place to himself, David, the poor keeper of the sheep. It is a serious thing to allow ourselves to he directed by our natural affections, however legitimate they may be, rather than by the spiritual judgment God has given us.
Certainly at this time not only weakness was to be found in this well-loved king. In his heart there was a divine cord that always responded faithfully when touched. Joab was well aware of this and did not fail to avail himself of it. An appeal to grace always found its echo in David; therefore the woman of Tekoah comes to plead with the king for grace. He yields, forgetting that grace is not the only principle involved; God is also a righteous God, and His grace cannot be exalted at the expense of His righteousness. Joab's counsel which David followed leads the king to an abuse of grace, which is all the more serious because his natural affections were involved. This is like the honey that was forbidden to be mixed with the sacrifices (Lev. 2:1111No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the Lord, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the Lord made by fire. (Leviticus 2:11)). Grace ought not to yield to feelings, human ties, or the gentleness of human nature. But it did with David. Yielding to his fatherly affection he did not sufficiently discern the work of the enemy, although this could not completely escape him: "Is the hand of Joab with thee in all this?" (2 Sam. 14:1919And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord the king hath spoken: for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid: (2 Samuel 14:19).) The woman acknowledges: "Joab [has] done this thing" (2 Sam. 14:2020To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth. (2 Samuel 14:20)); and the king says to Joab: "Behold now, I have done this thing" (2 Sam. 14:2121And the king said unto Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing: go therefore, bring the young man Absalom again. (2 Samuel 14:21)). He now takes the responsibility for what Joab wanted to do. The enemy, Absalom, is received at Jerusalem—and what an enemy he proves to be!
Nevertheless David does not desire that this guilty person should present himself before him. Joab accepts his master's decision. Once, twice, he refuses to see Absalom who had called him, for he senses that it is in his interest to side with the king. Absalom in his fury sets Joab's field on fire, using violence against the man who had pled his cause had then gone to get him at Geshur, and had brought him back to Jerusalem, figuring on putting Absalom under obligation to himself. Joab, motivated by personal interest comes to ask Absalom to account for his deed and is obliged against his will to intercede with David that the king might consent to see his son again.
Joab found his master in Absalom. God allows all these things. He had already made use of Joab's deceits, his artfulness, his wickedness, and his cruelty in order to carry out His own purposes. He will use Absalom to the same end, and ultimately His ways will be only ways of grace toward David. But Joab is obliged to obey the man he had thought to dominate. He will not forget this. Absalom has become an obstacle to his designs, a power Joab can no longer count on and one who has turned against himself. At a favorable moment Joab will kill Absalom.