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2 Samuel 4:8-12 – True Justice

Bannah and Rechab have a pious sounding, theological explanation for what they’ve done. Do you see it there in the second half of v8? ‘The LORD has avenged my lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring’. It’s very pious sounding, isn’t it? We’re just the instruments, O King. The LORD is the one who has done it. But David isn’t having any of it. Even if it’s true that ultimately God had done it – that didn’t make them any less guilty of murder.

One of the ways that David is most Christ-like in this chapter is in executing judgement on these two Benjaminites. The real Jesus, not the Jesus of popular imagination, but the real Jesus, loves justice. In fact the very reason he went to the cross wasn’t so that justice could be avoided, but so that justice could be done – and his people still saved. So that God could be both ‘just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus’. Perhaps we shudder as we read the closing verses. And yet what David is doing is simply cutting through all the pious talk about God and calling out what these men have actually done. ‘Wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed’. They’re portraying themselves as people who’ve done God’s will. But actually they’re just murderers.

In the church we need to be able to see past the spiritual sounding language, and theologically true statements applied to the wrong situations, and call a spade a spade. The Baanah’s and Rechab’s of this world don’t really care about God. They just want to be allowed to live however they want. And if they know the right language to use, well-meaning Christians and even church leaders can be taken in. Yet unlike the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of God is to be a kingdom of mercy, grace – and true justice.

Question

  1. How do Bannah and Rechab excuse what they’ve done?
  2. How do people use spiritual sounding words to justify sin?

Prayer Points

  1. Pray that we would grow in Scriptural discernment.
  2. Use prayer points from your congregation.
  3. Pray for family matters.