How and why this meeting came about, we are not told. I'm assuming it was Abner who issued the invitation to Joab since the meeting takes place on land owned by the tribe to which Abner and the late King Saul belonged. Abner likely invited Joab on the pretext of peacefully settling the problem of the current division within the kingdom, though his motive may actually have been to instigate war. A number of scholars believe he orchestrates an altercation that takes place at the pool in order to cause the situation to turn violent, leading to full-scale war between what is now two separate kingdoms: the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah.
"Abner son of Ner, together with the men of Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, left Mahanaim and went to Gibeon. Joab son of Zeruiah and David's men went out and met them at the pool of Gideon. One group sat down on one side of the pool and one group on the other side." (2 Samuel 2:12-13) The "men of Ish-Bosheth", may be his own group of supporters, or the contingent of bodyguards who formerly served his father, or they may from among the three thousand elite soldiers who accompanied Saul every time he went out on the hunt for David. King Ish-Bosheth of Israel does not attend the meeting himself, nor does King David of Judah. David, like Ish-Bosheth, sends his top military man who is the son of his sister Zeruiah.
Now this is where things start to get weird. "Then Abner said to Joab, 'Let's have some of the young men get up and fight hand to hand in front of us.' 'All right, let them do it,' Joab said." (2 Samuel 2:14) It might appear at first that this is a method being used to determine a winning side. You'll recall that when King Saul and the army of Israel stood facing the Philistine army, Goliath stepped out and suggested that instead of both armies going to war, the Israelites should send out one man to him to fight to the death. He said that the nation of the loser would submit to serving the nation of the winner. It would be easy to assume that when Abner and Joab agree to appointing some of their men to engage in hand to hand combat, it's for the purpose of saving themselves the trouble of all-out war. But instead what's going on here is more akin to a sporting event held in an arena---the kind of sporting event held for the amusement of viewers who enjoy witnessing violence, gore, and death.
I'm reminded of the 1980s movie "Max Max: Beyond Thunderdome" and the sporting event where two men would be put in a cage together to fight until one of them was dead. Spectators would watch the fight and the mantra was, "Two men enter, one man leaves." That may be similar to what Abner and Joab expected to see happen by the pool of Gibeon. They probably thought one team would massacre the other team or that all the men involved would fight until only one was left alive. But what actually happens is that nobody comes out alive. "So they stood up and were counted off---twelve men for Benjamin and Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, and twelve for David. Then each man grabbed his opponent by the head and thrust his dagger into his opponent's side, and they fell down together. So that place in Gibeon was called Helkath Hazzurim." (2 Samuel 2:15-16)
This has to have been one of the shortest and one of the dumbest fights in history. Even though this fight takes place in the Bible, I think we can safely call it a dumb fight because it certainly wasn't a fight commanded by the Lord. It wasn't a fight authorized by King David either. It was a fight set up by two men of very questionable morals who thought so little of their soldiers' lives that they lost twenty-four men in the blink of an eye, in a fight that couldn't possibly have ended well for all or most of the men, and nothing is settled regarding the way the country is divided at the moment. There is no winner. Twenty-four men lost their lives. Twenty-four women may have been widowed, if all the men were married. A number of children lost their fathers. The nation is even more divided than it was before the fight took place because now the blood of the other soldiers is boiling with the desire to exact revenge, which may have been what Abner intended. I cannot fathom him really wanting to come to any kind of peace agreement; he is too ambitious to settle for his cousin being king over only eleven tribes of Israel. If indeed Ish-Bosheth is a puppet king as has long been believed by a number of highly reputable scholars both living and dead, that means Abner is the real power behind the throne. He would not be able to endure the thought of a rival king leading the tribe of Judah, especially when that king is David who he despises.
If war is what Abner wants, war is what Abner gets. In tomorrow's passage he gets handed a defeat in the first skirmish between his troops and Joab's troops. But as Abner retreats, he still manages to strike a blow against the house of David, killing one of David's nephews with his spear. War always causes loss and grief, even among those who are on the side of what is right. This particular war didn't even have to happen if only Abner had accepted the Lord's will for David to rule over a united nation of Israel. Instead Abner had to put his man forward and stir up rebellion. Instead he caused the loss of many mens' lives, caused women to weep for their dead husbands and dead sons, and made children grow up without fathers.
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