“Avner the son of Ner, commander of Sha’ul’s army, had taken Ish-Boshet the son of Sha’ul, brought him over to Machanayim, and made him king over Gil‘ad, the Ashuri, Yizre‘el, Efrayim, Binyamin and all Isra’el.”-2 Samuel 2:8-9
Verses 8 and 9 tell us that Abner decided to move Ishbosheth from the northern part of Canaan to a place called Mahanaim, across the Jordan River.
It was there that he made Ishbosheth the new king, taking over for his father, Saul.
There are a couple of interesting things about this.
First, why did Avner move Ishboshesh to the other side of the river to make him king?
The reason is that it was easier to start a new government there because the Philistines had taken over too much of Saul’s old kingdom.
Second, and this is a key question:
Why would Avner even want to make Ishbosheth king if he knew God wanted David to be king?
Here’s the thing.
Avner respected God and His commands more than King Saul, his old boss did.
The ancient Sages and Rabbis have entertained some interesting ideas about why Avner decided to make Ishbosheth the new king despite knowing God had ordained David king (he admits this in chapter 3) over all the Israelite tribes.
So again, why did Avner make Ishboshesh king?
Was this a high rebellion against David?
Was he just blindly following royal protocol?
We’ll get into this the next time we meet…
But first I wanna get your opinion.
Why do you think Avner made Ishboshesh king despite knowing David was divinely destined to be Israel’s next ruler?
Drop your thoughts in the comments.
Leave a Reply