Links for today’s readings:
Read: 2 Samuel 18 Listen: (6:16) Read: Psalms 7-8 Listen: (2:58)
Scripture Focus: 2 Samuel 18.14
14 Joab said, “I’m not going to wait like this for you.” So he took three javelins in his hand and plunged them into Absalom’s heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree.
Reflection: Dealing With Joab
By John Tillman
Joab stuck out his neck for Absalom. But when he betrayed David, Joab, the man who showed Absalom mercy, mercilessly slaughtered him as he hung helplessly in the tree.
Joab then berated David as he wept, “O my son Absalom!…If only I had died instead of you—O Absalom, my son!” Joab got David up from his grief and out to do the necessary hand shaking to keep his army together.
When I was a younger man, I admired Joab because I thought he saved David. I was wrong.
I saw Joab as a realist—a practical, get-stuff-done kind of guy. He did hard things that David “wimped out” on. I used to think that every moral leader needed a slightly-less-moral “helper” such as Joab. How wrong-headed this thinking is! Joab’s kind of loyalty is a twisted form of “honor” that cripples accountability, truth, and justice.
After seeing Joab-like men destroying the reputation of Christ on behalf of institutions and individuals, I recognize him for the danger that he is. As I look more clearly at Joab I realized that he didn’t revere God. He revered David.
Many leaders employ (or attract) worshipful hatchet-men like Joab. Joab enforces loyalty. Joab deletes evidence. Joab fires troublemakers. Joab threatens witnesses. Ministries have been ruined from behind the scenes because of the machinations of a “Joab.”
If you are a leader, you may attract a Joab. Beware. One of David’s greatest failings as a leader might be failing to deal with Joab. Be ready to deal with yours.
A Joab will seem loyal and talk about honor. Be careful. Joab’s loyalty is only to earthly power structures that he is part of and his honor is only for those enabling him.
It is important that we do not admire Joab.
It is important that we disarm and disavow him.
But it is more important that we do not become him.
Learn to spot Joab in others or yourself. Joab is loyal to a “king” rather than God. Usually this is a leader, like a pastor, but sometimes an institution, like a ministry or church. Joab is more concerned about protecting the king than about truth or justice. Joab is more concerned about the king’s reputation than righteousness. Joab is concerned about vengeance on enemies rather than justice for victims. Joab is marked by practical, not spiritual thinking.
Don’t become or empower Joab.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Protect me, O God, for I take refuge in you; I have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, my good above all other.” — Psalm 16.1
– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle
Listen to: Dealing with Joab
Listen to an earlier version of this post on our podcast, “Pause to Read.” When I was a younger man, I admired Joab…I was wrong.
Read more: The Moon and the Cross
At the center of this psalm, we see the power that defeats evil. It is not the command of a king or the sword of a warrior but the praise of infants.