2 Samuel 2:8-32

⁸ Meanwhile, Abner son of Ner, the commander of Saul’s army, had taken Ish-Boshethson of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim. ⁹ He made him king over Gilead, Ashuri and Jezreel, and also over Ephraim, Benjamin and all Israel.

¹⁰ Ish-Bosheth son of Saul was forty years old when he became king over Israel, and he reigned two years. The tribe of Judah, however, remained loyal to David. ¹¹ The length of time David was king in Hebron over Judah was seven years and six months. 

¹² Abner son of Ner, together with the men of Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, left Mahanaim and went to Gibeon. ¹³ Joab son of Zeruiah and David’s men went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. One group sat down on one side of the pool and one group on the other side. ¹⁴ Then Abner said to Joab, “Let’s have some of the young men get up and fight hand to hand in front of us.”  “All right, let them do it,” Joab said. ¹⁵ So they stood up and were counted off—twelve men for Benjamin and Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, and twelve for David. ¹⁶ Then each man grabbed his opponent by the head and thrust his dagger into his opponent’s side, and they fell down together. So that place in Gibeon was called Helkath Hazzurim.[a] ¹⁷ The battle that day was very fierce, and Abner and the Israelites were defeated by David’s men. ¹⁸ The three sons of Zeruiah were there: Joab, Abishai and Asahel. Now Asahel was as fleet-footed as a wild gazelle. ¹⁹ He chased Abner, turning neither to the right nor to the left as he pursued him. ²⁰ Abner looked behind him and asked, “Is that you, Asahel?”

“It is,” he answered.

²¹ Then Abner said to him, “Turn aside to the right or to the left; take on one of the young men and strip him of his weapons.” But Asahel would not stop chasing him.

²² Again Abner warned Asahel, “Stop chasing me! Why should I strike you down? How could I look your brother Joab in the face?”

²³ But Asahel refused to give up the pursuit; so Abner thrust the butt of his spear into Asahel’s stomach, and the spear came out through his back. He fell there and died on the spot. And every man stopped when he came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died. ²⁴ But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner, and as the sun was setting, they came to the hill of Ammah, near Giah on the way to the wasteland of Gibeon. ²⁵ Then the men of Benjamin rallied behind Abner. They formed themselves into a group and took their stand on top of a hill. ²⁶ Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will end in bitterness? How long before you order your men to stop pursuing their fellow Israelites?” ²⁷ Joab answered, “As surely as God lives, if you had not spoken, the men would have continued pursuing them until morning.” ²⁸ So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the troops came to a halt; they no longer pursued Israel, nor did they fight anymore.

²⁹ All that night Abner and his men marched through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, continued through the morning hours^[b] and came to Mahanaim. ³⁰ Then Joab stopped pursuing Abner and assembled the whole army. Besides Asahel, nineteen of David’s men were found missing. ³¹ But David’s men had killed three hundred and sixty Benjamites who were with Abner. ³² They took Asahel and buried him in his father’s tomb at Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men marched all night and arrived at Hebron by daybreak.

We fight because we think we are right and someone else is wrong.  We fight because we think we can win and someone else must lose.  We fight because we think that if we win, conflict will be resolved and both parties can move on.  The reality is that when we fight we only deepen old wounds, open new wounds and prolong the healing of already existing wounds.  The result of a fight can only be negative.  The act of fighting is grounded in mistrust, disrespect and pride.  When we fight we are shown to be entirely human.  We also display how little the gospel of Jesus Christ has affected that human nature that led us to fight in the first place.  Our inability to trust one another, respect one another and be wronged by one another gives our sinful state fruitful ground in which to grow strong.  On the other hand, a sign that the gospel has made its way past our enslavement to sin and has infiltrated the depths of our human heart is not only the loss in the value of the fight but a total distaste for it.  Because the nature of the gospel is to heal, those carrying the gospel in the heart have an aversion to all things that have the potential to hurt.  From this perspective no fight is worth the cost: healing becomes the primary interest.

1 Samuel 2:12-26

¹² Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord. ¹³ Now it was the practice of the priests that, whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled ¹⁴ and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. ¹⁵ But even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, “Give the priest some meat to roast; he won’t accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.”

¹⁶ If the person said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want,” the servant would answer, “No, hand it over now; if you don’t, I’ll take it by force.”

¹⁷ This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they^[a] were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.

¹⁸ But Samuel was ministering before the Lord—a boy wearing a linen ephod. ¹⁹ Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. ²⁰ Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to^[b]the Lord.” Then they would go home. ²¹ And the Lord was gracious to Hannah; she gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.

²² Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ²³ So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. ²⁴ No, my sons; the report I hear spreading among the Lord’s people is not good. ²⁵ If one person sins against another, God^[c] may mediate for the offender; but if anyone sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them?” His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was the Lord’s will to put them to death.

²⁶ And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people.

How often do we take what doesn’t belong to us?  How often do we freely give of what we have? One follows the standard trajectory of the human heart.  The other follows a trajectory dictated by the spirit of Jesus Christ.  We take what is not ours due to a disregard for others and an over-inflated view of ourselves.  From that vantage point, we lack the ability to even see the interests of others because our vision is dominated by self.  And since we cannot see others at all, we can’t see their sadness as a result of their loss;  we are preoccupied by the joy that results in our gain.  By contrast, the giving heart of the Spirit echoes the heart of God.  This heart doesn’t simply evolve an interest or value in giving.  This new heart is defined by giving.  This new heart finds it nearly impossible to take and all too natural to give.  Giving in this case does not leave you without, with less than you had.  It is giving what was not yours to begin with and leaves you with what was always there.  God has brought all of us into this world not for us to fall in love with it.  He brought us into this world so we can fall in love with him through our experience in his creation.  Thus, when we fall in love with who he is, we become less aware of what he has given or taken away.  At this point it is him we desire, and nothing can take him away from us once we find him.