The Undertone


2 Samuel 12:26-31
26 Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and took the royal city.
27 And Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah; moreover, I have taken the city of waters.
28 Now then gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called by my name.”
29 So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it.
30 And he took the crown of their king from his head. The weight of it was a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone, and it was placed on David’s head. And he brought out the spoil of the city, a very great amount.
31 And he brought out the people who were in it and set them to labor with saws and iron picks and iron axes and made them toil at the brick kilns. And thus he did to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

It is said that less than 30% of what we say with our actual words truly conveys what we actually mean. The other 70% is made up of body language, tone, and emotional expression. Today we see a little bit into the mind and heart of Joab and his response to the bad behavior of his king.

During David’s affair with Bathsheba, the nation of Israel had been at war with the Ammonites. That drama played out for the people as David’s drama played out at court. In one brief message, you get a sense of Joab’s opinion of what had taken place while David stayed at home in Jerusalem and gotten himself into trouble. Here’s my “loose” translation of verses 27 and 28.

Oh King, (and I use the term without respect), I know what you did while I went to war in your place. I know that you had me get Uriah killed and I don’t like it. He was a good man who was loyal to you. The war with the Ammonites is going well. I have succeeded in battle while you fooled around in the capital. If you don’t get your act together and come and help me, I’m going to take all the credit for this win and you will lose even more respect among the people!”

Now I know that all of this is not present in the text. But Joab is indeed on the inside track with all of the events that led up to the death of Uriah. In these brief verses, Joab expresses his distaste for the killing of Uriah and exposes himself to the king’s wrath in order to let David know where he stands. Fortunately, David finally does the right thing and joins the battle, finishing the war and claiming the victory.

Not only did David lose a child, which is tragedy all by itself, he also lost the respect of his commander and any of his subjects who knew about the affair. What we will see in the up-coming chapters is that David also lost the respect of his adult children, which is to be expected. This loss of respect will have huge negative effects for the rest of his reign. Sin has far reaching consequences; but we rarely think of that when engaged in it!

Respect from others is so easily lost and also so very difficult to regain. The blessing for us is that God sees us clearly for who we truly are and His feelings toward us do not change. His love remains and His willingness to see us restored never wavers. We never have to earn our way back into His good graces. While it can be a little frightening to know we have Someone who knows us so well, there is also great peace in having that Someone always willing to take us back in love and mercy.

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