2 Samuel 21:15-22 - They fell at the hands of David and his men

21:15

We now see further evidence of decline in David. We see this in two ways. First there is war between the Philistines and Israel, and then there is the physical decline in David. David no longer has the authority that he once had. We see this in all sorts of human rulers,  there is almost always a decline in authority and competence in their closing years. David went to fight with his men, but became exhausted.

21:16,17

The situation was so bad that David was in danger of being killed. Abishai, a son of Zeruiah, as was Joab, came to David’s rescue. The sons of Zeruiah were both a thorn in David’s side, and a source of salvation. God sometimes uses people we get on well with to help us, and that is great. But at other times He uses people who we find it difficult to get on with to help us. We need to have a gracious attitude. David’s men greatly respected him and saw him as the “light of Israel”, so they insisted that he no longer went out to battle.

21:18-22

We then get a brief record of four other battles with David no longer on “active service”. In each of these the Philistines were defeated, and a particular man is named in defeating the Philistines. Also it is highlighted that the brother of Goliath is defeated. While David is now failing, we see the value of his having attracted loyalty and admiration from men. While he was in his prime they admired David. Now he was weakening, they were able to do the work that he once did, winning battles. There is a key lesson in leadership here. We must act honourably and earn the respect and loyalty of people while we are at the peak of our abilities. We are then in a position to let others do the work as we get older, and we must be prepared to let go, rather than doggedly holding on, pretending we are as able as we always were.