Amidst all the chaos and strife, there is one person who stands out in this chapter. Someone who, when those around her are losing their heads, is in her own words ‘peaceable and faithful in Israel’. We’re not told her name. Simply in verse 16 that she is a wise woman from the city of Abel. This city is under […]

In verse 3 David comes to his house at Jerusalem. It should have been a glorious moment. But it’s not quite a return to how things were before his sin with Bathsheba. On the national level, there are clear tensions, which in the days of David’s son Solomon will become even clearer when the nation fractures irreversibly. It’s all part […]

Sheba’s rebellion is different from Absalom’s in many ways. Remember how Absalom had planned his rebellion for years. Sheba, on the other hand, is an opportunist. He can see the tensions. The fault lines are clear. And so he tries to exploit them for his own benefit. But at the heart of it, both these rebellions are the same. They […]