May 21, 2009
Today's Reading: 2 Samuel 17-18 and Psalm 19-20
Today’s reading discusses the end of the coup of Absalom, which, sorry to say, does not have a happy ending.
I find the actions of Ahimaaz sort of interesting. He hears that Absalom is dead, and he immediately wants to bring David the good news. After all, David was on the run from this guy, and it would be good to be rid of Absalom.
Joab, the guy who actually killed Absalom, knows what will happen once the news is given. By the way, Joab actually had the opportunity to capture Absalom alive, as the king was caught in a tree by his hair. I guess he knew that his son will always have influence, even if he was captured. He reminds me of the militant guy that you see in movies that wants to go around what the president wants to do.
So Joab sends a Cushite to deliver the message. I can only assume that a Cushite was sort of slave guy. I believe that Noah put a curse on Ham, who is the son of Cush. I guess that might be somewhat important, maybe. If this was a normal devotional, I would probably spend quite a bit of time discussing that.
Even though Joab discourages Ahimaaz from delivering this message, he insists on doing it. In fact, he even passes up the Cushite who is supposed to be the imparitial messenger. In all honesty, I think Joab sent the Cushite because he wanted the Cushite to take the flack, in case David was the type to “blame the messenger”.
Oddly enough, David assumes that the presence of two messengers means doubly good news. I don’t know why in the world he would think that.
Of course, David got the good news (the coup is over) and the bad news (Absalom is dead). You may consider David a pessimist, but I think that he had a right to be sad about his son.
The truth is that every good news is always bad news to someone. I guarantee that when we won World War II, millions of wives from Axis countries mourned. The sick thing is that every bad news is good news to someone. I’m certain that whatever earthquake or hurricane probably resulted in someone turning a profit, make no mistake.
Even the Good News of the gospel is seen as a curse by many. I’m sure we all know people who don’t want to give their life to God, for some reason or another. There would be no point in discussing why.
Yeah, the good goes with the bad, it always does.
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