JOAB knew he’d crossed many lines with David and he’d been forgiven every time he did.
He knew his loyalty to the man had always been tainted with tempers, his impulsive actions and unbridled wrath—
But he’d enjoyed the monarch’s leniency too many times to count.
However, the man had begun to fear in David’s latter years. And it wasn’t that he saw the former king made moves against him.
Instead, it was the king’s silence that had caused him fear. A moment’s silence for a buried list of errors.
Thus, the man had become quite nervous around David…
Then when the king grew too old and weak to go for battles, it became easier to hold grudges that he wouldn’t let soldiers war.
He didn’t realize then that his inward grumble was rather too loud for the old one to hear. He didn’t know that his master’s gaze was on him.
So, Joab became quite sunken in his resentment and in his plot to find a better king, that he didn’t suspect his master’s eyes.
But after the wind had blown past, and he’d seen David made Solomon king in his absence, he knew a lot had changed.
So he was afraid of how much of his ploy David knew.
Still after the scheme that Joab plotted with the Fourth Prince, David never summoned nor queried him.
Then at that point, the commander felt he’d lost everything. Everything he’d got with David.
Yet losing the monarch’s favour already proved a hard reality for Joab. So he simply banked on the mercy he’d always found with him.
Therefore, rather than accept the situation, the war general found it more convenient to hope for the king’s mercy. And so he waited in silence, as David also did.
However, the king died and his son reigned instead, so Joab’s fears returned.
Old Joab now feared the young son. He feared the little chap he never loved.
Thus, this day that he heard of Adonijah’s execution and Abiathar’s arrest, he reasoned many things out.
Yes, he knew the new king might not execute him for siding with the Fourth One – as no one really knew who the true heir was, he said.
‘But can he still find a reason to execute me if he went through the Book of Records?’ went the soldier.
‘Can he sentence me for a different crime to get back at me?’
Now that Book of Records—they called it the King’s Book of Records. It was a royal register of the noble deeds and misdeeds of the people...
Those people near enough to a monarch to be responsible for their deeds.
And in that book, their feats and misdeeds were written for a time of recompense.
Now Joab wasn’t sure anymore that Solomon wouldn’t find a single charge against him. Even if a crime as treason couldn’t be pinned on him.
For the general didn’t comb through the past for too long before he found just one felony.
And then a second one, too.
This was when the commander got on his horse and fled.
Now he hoped that David didn’t pen down those two.
◙ ◙ ◙
When Abiathar got to the king’s palace, he bowed and stood before him. He waited for his judgement.
Solomon sat up in his throne and spoke.
‘Abiathar, you are a priest of the Most High. You are to lead Israel in worship and sacrifice.
‘But you err in this: you join hands with traitors and offered sacrifice for gain.
‘You could have asked King David about his successor if you didn’t know him. But you never bothered to.’
Abiathar bowed as his heart bled like a blade pierced it.
He remembered the talk he had with the Fourth Son. That talk which began everything.
He wished he hadn’t had that chat. That he’d sent the man away when he felt the urge to.
He wished much more that he knew God himself. That he never had to look to people to know.
But he felt it was too late now. For all he’d got was a moment to his sentence.
Now he regretted everything.
The monarch picked up. ‘You have committed a crime for which you deserve to die. But you shall not be executed.
‘You were in charge of the Ark throughout my father’s reign, and you shared in all his troubles.
‘You are a priest of God, so I will leave you to be judged by Him. Nevertheless, you shall not continue as priest anymore.
‘So return to your hometown: you are exiled out of Yahweh’s Tabernacle and out of the capital!’
Abiathar fell on his face straightaway as tears poured out of his eyes. He was sorry and yet was grateful.
And that day, even great mountains trembled.
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