Power Play

Reflections on 2 Sam. 3:22-27

Just as a hockey team tries to take advantage of extra players on the ice in a power play, so David's nephew Joab used every advantage he could create to avenge his brother Asahel's death (2 Sam. 2:23). He operated on the principle that the end justifies the means.

SUSPICION. Joab was wise in the ways of the nations. His strategies included deception and spying on others. Accordingly, when he heard that Abner had seen David and left peacefully, he accused Abner of spying on David and deceiving him. Perhaps malice made him suspicious of treachery, or perhaps Joab was also trying to make others suspicious to justify what he was about to do to Abner.

ABUSING TERMS OF PEACE. Having decided to kill Abner, Joab took advantage of David's promise of peace and secretly recalled the unsuspecting Abner, whom his men found at the well or cistern of Sirah about two miles north of Hebron. Of course, Joab was defying the king, but he was doing so for the good of the king. The end justified the means in his own mind, and hopefully also in the minds of others.

(UN) LAWFUL VENGEANCE. The real reason Joab secretly defied the king and deceived Abner was his desire to avenge the death of his brother, Asahel, whom Abner had killed in battle. Even though Abner had been in battle, had not wanted to kill Asahel, had tried to dissuade Asahel from pursuing him, and had killed Asahel in self-defense (2 Sam. 2:23), Joab took advantage of the Law which allowed a kinsman to avenge a death until the killer sought protection and a trial in a city of refuge (Num. 35:9 ff.; Deut. 19:1 ff.). When Abner returned to Hebron, a city of refuge, Joab took him aside at the city gate and stabbed Abner in the stomach so that he died of the same kind of wound that killed Asahel. Whether Joab actually killed Abner outside the gate of Hebron is open to question just as his justification for killing Abner is open to question. Nevertheless, Joab seems to have schemed to retain the protection of the Law even while seeking revenge. He bent the Law to protect himself from being accused of unlawful revenge. For him, the end justified the means.