At What Price?

As 2 Samuel begins we see David rising to be king of part of the nation of Israel. Saul’s son, Ishbosheth (isn’t that a great name?) rises to be king in the northern kingdom. But I can’t help but feel sad as I read these chapters. They contain examples of people killing each other in order to establish power and to exact revenge. In some ways, David seems to rise above this, yet he has three people killed who were involved in either claiming to kill or actually killing king Saul and Ishbosheth.

By chapter 6 David has consolidated his power but at what price? In tomorrow’s reading I know I’m going to read about David using death to accomplish his own means as he has Uriah killed. This is sounding a little bit like a “Debbie downer” post but maybe we should take a step back and ask ourselves at what price are we willing to accomplish our objectives? Is killing members of ISIS going to stop others from rising to take their place? And at what price for our soldiers who are killing this round of ISIS? Or, closer to home, at what price to you are you exacting revenge on others? Sure, it might feel important at the time. It might make things seem better but do you really know the “price” you’ve paid? I know that I tend to underestimate the price I pay for my own sin and I suspect you do the same as well.

David is a man after God’s own heart but his kingdom was greatly impacted by revenge and fear, which often led to death. I think we should ask ourselves if we are paying a price that we are not aware we are paying.