A rebellion is stirring up in Gibeon, in the land of Benjamin. As part of the continuing tensions between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, Sheba ben Bikri challenges David’s reign. Amasa, who previously headed Absalom’s armies, is called to suppress the rebellion, but he is delayed. David therefore sends a second contingent, under the command of Abishai. Joab is part of this second contingent. He suspects that Amasa is deliberately lingering. As such, when he finds him in Gibeon, he immediately kills him. After having eliminated Abner and Absalom, David’s closest supporter is sure he has killed yet another agitator. The decades-long aspiration for national unity has once again met resistance. However, David is not willing to give up—he fights back and consolidates his power once more. We sometimes encounter what we might perceive to be cracks or imperfections, but it is precisely these that enable the light to come through. We must never give up on aiming higher.
“And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel. So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem” (2 Samuel 20:1-2)
Dedication is the experience of an ongoing, burning desire for love and light.
