The people of David are victorious! Celebrations should be ringing out as the usurping Absalom is defeated and dead, but instead, David has become moribund and despondent following the death of Absalom in 2 Samuel 19. It is so bad that Joab warns David that if he continues to mourn and not celebrate with the troops, all will be for naught and even his loyal followers will fall away from him. David properly chastised, goes to the gate to great his men returning from battle.
David has won the war but now he must win the peace. The rifts that caused the people to follow Absalom must be repaired. Many of Israel clamor for the return of David as king but it would seem that even his own people of Judah are slow to respond. David appeals to them, as "bone of bone" they are kin. It would seem that this appeal alone is not enough to win them over, so David sweetens the pot by offering the command of his army to Amasa, who had commanded Absalom's men. We are not told why Joab is thrust aside, perhaps it has to do with the death of Absalom, but David is now acting in real politik. The people of Judah accept David's offer and agree to follow David once again.
Now David must make peace with the people who opposed him, he is now king of Israel again, all of Israel, even those who supported Absalom. Shimei is the first opportunity for David to now rule the people again. Shimei realizes quickly that he backed the wrong horse and to his credit his moves very quickly to admit his error and seek the forgiveness of David. Against he wishes of Abishai, David forgives Shimei.
Mephibosheth is another story. When Mephibosheth appears, he does not have the appearance of one who has been resting and relaxing but almost one who is a prisoner. He defends his actions by saying that Ziba had tricked him, and David comes to the conclusion that Ziba in fact did trick him and David. So David restores a portion of the land of Saul to Mephibosheth, who is pleased to just be under the protection of David once again.
David also moves to reward those who supported him in his return to the throne and Barzillai is the example offered. David needs Barbzillai in this new venture, but Barbzillai admits he truly is too old to go to court, instead he offers his son, Chimham, who will now be part of the new ruling coalition.
While it might seem like things are back to normal, the chapter closes with another example of the uneasy relationship between the north and the south, Israel to the north, and Judah to the south. This tension will not go away and will help shape the future of Israel, as people.
This tension re-emerges with the rebellion of Sheba, who calls Israel to mobilize against the new old king. David takes a step to offer a consolation to the north, he puts away his concubines. Concubines were a Near Eastern tradition but not of the covenant. David had ruled by the long established royal ideology in this matter, not by the covenant. So by shutting out the concubines, David is agreeing to live by the covenant. However, this step is not enough to quell this new rebellion that develops in 2 Samuel 20.
So David summons his new commander, Amasa, who fails to properly obey. The text tells us he delays, but without offering a reason, we assume and the author assumes he is not be faithful to his king. David then turns to his own people and summons Abishai and Joab to pursue Sheba. They set off, and then run into Amasa, who finally joins in. Joab does what Joab does and kills Amasa. Ever the loyal man, Joab settles an old score of being replaced as well as punishes Amasa's lack of obedience.
Joab pursues Sheba to the city of Abel, where a woman negotiates a peaceful settlement. She rallies the people of Abel to behead Sheba and throw his head over the walls to Joab. Peace is achieved, the man stirring up the rebellion has been dealt with and Joab returns home.
1 Corinthians 8
Again Paul is dealing with "knowledge" but this time contrasts it with love, for knowledge "puffs up" while love builds up. While the issue at hand is food and what is appropriate to eat, the real issue is whether the church in Corinth is using the knowledge of Christ to build up a loving community or are they using that knowledge to exalt themselves? Unfortunately it is the latter.
The issue at hand is whether Christians should eat food offered as a sacrifice in the temples of false gods. The "strong" believers felt that they were able to eat this food, because there are truly no other gods than God. So to eat of the meat does nothing to them. Paul agrees with this position in theory, but for Paul there are other ramifications.
While the strong might know that there are no other gods but Yahweh, not all believers might feel that way or might not have yet come to that conclusion. To eat of the meat at these meals, or to see other believers partake of such meals might confuse them. For the benefit of these "weaker" believers the strong should abstain themselves.
Part of the issue is the socioeconomic divide in the Corinthian church. These festivals and meals at the temples were frequently activiites that the wealthy and social elite were a part of and were largely social gatherings. For the wealthy of the church it was part of their elite status that they did not want to give up. Not only did they not want to give up this lifestyle, but they demean others in the community who were concerned about their participating in the meals.
We come full circle with Paul's statement that knowledge puffs up but love builds up. If the wealthy members of the community truly loved, this is really not an issue, they would not attend the meals. To follow Christ means that our concerns are with our brothers and sisters of faith first, before our social calendars.
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