Fighting, it solves…
absolutely nothing…
When David was told that it was the men from Jabesh Gilead who had buried Saul, 5 he sent messengers to them to say to them, “The Lord bless you for showing this kindness to Saul your master by burying him. 6 May the Lord now show you kindness and faithfulness, and I too will show you the same favor because you have done this. 7 Now then, be strong and brave, for Saul your master is dead, and the people of Judah have anointed me king over them.” ~2 samuel 2:10-11~
26 Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will end in bitterness? How long before you order your men to stop pursuing their fellow Israelites?”
27 Joab answered, “As surely as God lives, if you had not spoken, the men would have continued pursuing them until morning.”
28 So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the troops came to a halt; they no longer pursued Israel, nor did they fight anymore. ~2 samuel 2:26-28~
like history repeating itself, when one kingdom/ruler just can’t be happy for the other, it seems war is inevitable. here we have david, who was anointed king of judah, and ish-bosheth over israel (including other cities). instead of being happy that david sent a very nice message and asked for The Lord to bless the people of jabesh gilead, a group within both parties had to go and test their ‘manhood’. what is pretty crappy is that it was the (2) men, abner and joab who wanted to see some of their men from both sides to fight, and the results were unfortunate - they all died. what was gained? NOTHING!
joab’s ‘team’ won that beef and ended up chasing after abner. one of joab’s brother was chasing abner down and, ultimately, he lost his life causing joab to get pissed and want revenge. eventually catching up to abner, instead of wanting to fight more, abner simply stated: “must the sword devour forever; don’t your realize that this will end in bitterness?” i think he finally realized how pointless fighting, being angry, and feeling the need to kill.
from biblehub.com, benson commentary:
In civil wars, as Cicero speaks, (Familiar Epist., lib. 4.,) all things are miserable, and nothing more miserable than victory itself, which makes the conqueror do many things against his will, to satisfy those by whom he conquers. Joab seems to have been very sensible of this, from his withdrawing his forces so readily from the pursuit. From following their brethren — By nation and religion; descended from one common ancestor of Israel, and worshipping one and the same God. How forcible is this argument, even if applied to all men, and how ought it to induce all kings and princes to avoid all wars as much as possible, forasmuch as all mankind are brethren, and made of one blood.
i write this in part because you can’t help but feel the same with what is going on in the middle east. from the beginning, we have (2) sons from the same father (abraham) - ishmael and isaac. instead of coming together as ‘family’, we have future generations that are fighting each other to the death. right now there is no end in sight with what is going on in gaza, which is unfortunate because peace could be achieve if they simply realized what abner and joab did - This is true of every sin, oh that men would consider it in time, that it will be bitterness in the latter end! The same thing which looked pleasant in the morning, at night looked dismal. ~matthew henry’s concise commentary~
what i get from this is that fighting, arguing, yelling, and screaming, is not only fruitless, it makes for difficult times ahead. the bitterness that is felt by the other side simply causes more pain and destruction than it is worth by both parties. it’s that everyone loses, not just the one who’s technically winning. one of the key points for me is that words do matter, when it’s said, and how it is communicated. abner was able to diffuse a potentially bad situation (being killed) and cause joab to rethink his position and allow calmer heads to prevail. i’m wanting to do the same when i encounter a problem that escalates to the point of blows; this is my hope.
dear Heavenly Father, thank you that we can run to you, guiding us through your Holy Spirit to say the right things at the right time; to let go the anger and ‘bitterness’ that once got the best of me. may the love that is poured out on me be shared with others, even the ones that don’t treat me as i would want and expect. help me to continue to come from a place of respect and honor, not looking for a fight when things aren’t going my way. in Jesus’ name i pray, amen!