The Second Book Of Samuel. Day 5, A Mystery That Is Not A Contradiction

Now that Saul is dead, David is the rightful king of Israel according to the will of God, who instructed the prophet Samuel to anoint David to succeed Saul as king. But Saul's top military commander and first cousin, Abner, doesn't want David ruling over the nation and he took swift action when he saw that Saul and his three oldest sons were dead. He went and got Ish-Bosheth, another son of Saul's, and proclaimed him king of every tribe of Israel except Judah, for the men of Judah had already declared David as their king. Today we are going to look at a mystery, if we want to call it that, concerning the length of time the Bible says Ish-Bosheth was king (over every tribe other than Judah) and concerning the length of time the Bible says David was king only over the tribe of Judah.

While Ish-Bosheth is reigning in the territory of Benjamin in his father's stead, David reigns over Judah from Hebron. "The tribe of Judah, however, remained loyal to David. The length of time David was king in Hebron over Judah was seven years and six months." (2 Samuel 2:10b-11) Yesterday's text told us that Ish-Bosheth only reigned for two years. However, we know that David will become king over all Israel after the death of Ish-Bosheth. Why the discrepancy in the timeline? Where are the other five and a half years? 

As we discussed yesterday, a large number of scholars believe Ish-Bosheth was just a weak puppet king put in place by Abner. They think that, after Ish-Bosheth's first two years on the throne, Abner gave up any semblance of allowing his cousin to be in charge. This would mean that the shrewd and ambitious army leader was the real power behind the throne and that he was treated as such by the people. We talked yesterday about the clues indicating that Ish-Bosheth was a weak individual, either in personality or in body or in mind. He may have stepped back after a time and let the powerful Abner take over. 

Other scholars propose that five and a half years passed between the death of Saul and the proclaiming of Ish-Bosheth as king, for the Philistines were conducting major incursions into Israel at the time of Saul's death and the nation may have been too fully occupied with repelling the enemy, under the command of Abner, to concern itself with anointing a king. This would make sense considering that what the people needed most during those years was a wise military strategist. The most imminent threat facing the nation---facing it's very existence!---was the enormous Philistine army with its superior war machinery. Having a man leading the army was more important than having a man sitting on the throne drafting public policies. Abner would not have had time to retrieve Ish-Bosheth and install him as king if he were completely occupied with orchestrating all of Israel's war maneuvers. 

Of the two theories, I personally prefer the second one, but I think I may be in the minority on that. The only thing I can say for certain is that the Bible is the inerrant word of God and therefore it contains no contradictions. Whenever something appears to be contradictory it's because we don't have all the information. From the time the Lord revealed to Samuel that He intended to take the right to rule away from Saul's family line and transfer it to David's family line, the Scriptures mainly concern themselves with David and his descendants. This is because David's family is not only the royal family line of Israel but also the the line from which the Messiah will come. That's why we won't find the author of 2 Samuel telling us as much about what Ish-Bosheth is doing as what David is doing. That leaves us with some gaps in Ish-Bosheth's resume. But it does not leave us in a position to entertain any doubts about the inerrancy of the Scriptures. If the Bible tells us David reigned over Judah for seven and a half years and that Ish-Bosheth reigned over the rest of the nation for two years, that's exactly what happened. How and why it happened this way, we are not told, but the information provided to us about these two men's reigns is true. 

As soon as Abner appoints Ish-Bosheth as king, he keeps doing whatever he wants to do. He makes decisions for himself, for the army, and for the nation without us being told he even bothers to consult the king. In tomorrow's passage he will invite Joab (David's nephew and top military man) and his men to meet with him and his men at a location within the tribe of Benjamin where a very weird and very quick fight ensues between twenty-four men, leaving all twenty-four of them dead. The cruel character of Abner is put on display when he causes the death of these men for what may be nothing but sport. The incident gives us some insight into the character of Joab as well, for Joab doesn't object to the bizarre duel of tomorrow's passage. Joab will be a major player as we continue on in our study and will, at many junctures, put his own interests above David's. He is the type of man who always thinks he knows best and will disobey David's orders and the Lord's will whenever it suits him. Though Abner and Joab are on different sides, they are well-matched in regard to their military cunning and their ruthless ambitions.