Listening to Wise Counsel

“Then a wise woman called from the city, ‘Listen! Listen! Tell Joab, ‘Come here that I may speak to you And he came near her, and the woman said, ‘Are you Joab?’ He answered, ‘I am.’ Then she said to him, ‘Listen to the words of your servant’ And he answered, ‘I am listening.’ Then she said, ‘They used to say in former times, ‘Let them but ask counsel at Abel,’ and so they settled a matter. I am one of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up the heritage of the Lord?’ Joab answered, ‘Far be it from me, far be it, that I should swallow up or destroy! That is not true, But a man of the hill country of Ephraim called Sheba, the son of Bichri, has lifted up his hand against King David. Give up him alone, and I will withdraw from the city.’ And the woman said to Joab, ‘Behold his head shall be thrown to you over the wall.’ “ -2 Samuel 20:16-21 [Read 2 Samuel 20

King David, although restored to his throne in Jerusalem after the revolt led by his own (third) son Absalom, and the son’s death at the hands of Joab, commander of King David’s army, the nation was still in chaos. Jealousy, strife and contention were on every hand. In 2 Samuel 20, we see the unusual interference by a brave, wise woman to help the situation and prevent more fighting and bloodshed.

The situation, briefly, is that a man named Sheba, a Benjamite was leading a rebellion against King David.. We are told in 1 Chronicles 5:13 that Sheba was from the tribe of Gad. He wanted to take advantage of the factions between what was the “Southern” Kingdom (Judah, that lay between the Dead Sea and ended at the border of the city of Jerusalem; and the “Northern” Kingdom of Israel, which was northward from just beyond Jerusalem through to Mt. Herman in the north and eastward across the Jordan River that cut the northern area in half to the land of Aram-Damascus in the northeast, Ammon in the east, and Moab in the south. It is interesting to note this division on a map of Old Testament lands.

Sheba tried to gain a foothold against King David and “dethrone” him. But Joab, still a commander in King David’s army, met up with an unlikely person to give advice, a woman at the town of Abel where the rebel, Sheba was hiding out. She dared to approached Joab with the adage, “They used to say in olden times: Let them ask counsel at Abel.” When Joab and his army were besieging and about to tear down the town of Abel with battering rams, this brave lady came out to talk to the army commander. She asked a probing question: “Who will swallow up the heritage of the Lord?” She definitely counted her city as “the heritage of the Lord” and did not want it destroyed by war.

It seems in 2 Samuel the name of the town was shortened to Abel. Scholars hold that the full name of the small town was Abel-Beth-Maachah, known for its wisdom; and hence a dear place to the woman who dare to approach and beg Commander Joab for mercy on her town. She was able to get the citizens of her town to deliver the head of Sheba to Joab, and hence prevent a massive war destroying the city of wisdom, peace and non-war-like people. Her example strongly indicates that God uses believers to accomplish His purposes, even though sometimes it takes great bravery and determination to approach someone with much more power than the person making the appeal. God averted another war with much bloodshed, as just shortly before this incident, in the Forest of Ephraim, David and his retinue had exiled to Mahaniam east of the Jordan River in the hill country of Gilead because of his son Absalom’s rebellion. To be able to avert a full-scale war is an achievement on any level. Thank God that this wise, brave woman was concerned enough to make a plea for peace.

Prayer concerns: Pray for our country and its leaders. God’s leadership of King David and his kingdom, of whom God had promised “a decendant of David on the throne forever,” and made David an ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ, is an excellent case study in the truth that God is the Lord of all nations, even ours; and even if our leaders do not always acknowledge God. Pray! - Ethelene Dyer Jones 08.05.2018