Links for today’s readings:
Read: 2 Samuel 11 Listen: (4:25) Read: Revelation 19 Listen: (3:47)
Scripture Focus: 2 Samuel 11.24-25
24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.” 25 David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”
Genesis 4.7b
“…sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Reflection: The Sword Also Devours Its Wielders
By John Tillman
David comforts Joab by saying, “the sword devours one as well as another,” but this wasn’t really comfort—it was a cover-up. The sword was in David’s hand as he said it. Worse than that, the sword was in David’s soul. Before the sword’s edge spills the blood of its victims, it devours the heart of its wielders.
This passage is an excellent example of how violence in the Bible is personified as “the sword” regardless of how someone dies. (Uriah died from a hail of arrows, not a sword.) In the Bible, the sword is not a passive tool but an active, hungry predator—it devours.
Violence is a restless evil. Like the sin that “crouched” at Cain’s door, violence leaps into our souls. It’s possible to say that the sword of violence “devoured” Abel and Uriah, but first it devoured Cain and David.
Uriah was one of David’s inner circle of mighty warriors. (1 Chronicles 11.11-47) David assassinated an ally to cover up his private sin. Cain murdered his brother. There is no level of loyalty or love that can’t be breached by the sin of violence.
The sword represents the spirit of violence and is devouring our culture today. As it stalked Cain and David, it crouches at our doors and devours many victims. Some claim this moment, when assassinations and violent attacks top the news cycle, is unique. It is not. The sword has never rested and everything happening now has happened before.
Some claim that only one particular group has become servants of the sword of violence. This is an illusion. David was unintentionally prophetic when he said, “the sword devours one as well as another.” If we think we, or our allies, are immune or innocent, we are fooling ourselves and twice as vulnerable for our hubris. If Cain and David were devoured, we can be as well.
Devote yourself to intense prayer and examination of your heart for signs of the spirit of the sword. Do you celebrate violence? Do you ignore or excuse some sources of violence and rail against others? Do you defend violent or threatening rhetoric? Keep each other accountable. Warn brothers and sisters against the spirit of violence and the sword.
If the spirit of violence breaches your heart, its sword will find its way to your lips, then your hand. It desires to have us, but we must rule over it. (Genesis 4.7)
Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Sing to the Lord and bless his Name; proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all peoples. — Psalm 96.2-3
– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle
Read more: A Sword Unsheathed
Many invoke apocalyptic passages to inspire or justify violence against “God’s enemies” as they define them. This is a misuse of scripture.
Read more: Of Pride and The Sword
In scripture the sword is not inanimate. The sword is hungry, with an appetite to devour individuals, races, nations, kings, and empires.