Joab is displeased with David's response to Abner. David had accepted Abner's change of allegiance, but Joab was against this. Now Joab had quite a powerful position, and there will be times when people in such positions disagree with what the leader does. This in itself is not a problem, what can be a problem is the way the person reacts, and Joab causes a major problem here.
So Joab took matters into his own hands and, without David's knowledge, had Abner killed. When David hears about this he is angry and pronounces a curse on Joab's household.
Now note the aside in v30. Joab was making out that his distrust of Abner was out of concern for the kingdom, for concern that Abner was acting deceitfully. The real reason was that he wanted revenge for Abner having killed his brother Asahel. There can often be motives at work that are not immediately obvious to us.
David then made it abundantly clear that he had had nothing to do with Abner's death. All Joab's men approved of this, so Joab had been acting alone.
We need to realise that the fact that we disagree with a leader is not in itself a problem. We have not been called to agree with everyone. But our reactions when we disagree can be a problem. We need to respect the position of leadership.
So Joab took matters into his own hands and, without David's knowledge, had Abner killed. When David hears about this he is angry and pronounces a curse on Joab's household.
Now note the aside in v30. Joab was making out that his distrust of Abner was out of concern for the kingdom, for concern that Abner was acting deceitfully. The real reason was that he wanted revenge for Abner having killed his brother Asahel. There can often be motives at work that are not immediately obvious to us.
David then made it abundantly clear that he had had nothing to do with Abner's death. All Joab's men approved of this, so Joab had been acting alone.
We need to realise that the fact that we disagree with a leader is not in itself a problem. We have not been called to agree with everyone. But our reactions when we disagree can be a problem. We need to respect the position of leadership.
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