2026-09-23
1 Kings 2:8-9 And there is also with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day when I went to Mahanaim. But when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ Now therefore do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man. You will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol.”
Yes, when I read that, I was just as surprised as you too probably are. The David I had known and had praised until then was a man who readily and gladly forgave offences against him and who kept back his body-guards from avenging him. Now, when David was fleeing from Absalom, he met Shimei, and Shimei had cursed him, saying: “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! The Lord has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood” (2 Samuel 16:7-8). Abishai asked to kill Shimei there and then for such impertinence but David would not let him. And when Absalom was killed, and David once again established as king, Shimei asked for pardon, which David granted, and swore never to let him be put to death. All this mercy and clemency on David’s part towards his enemies was so encouraging and uplifting to read and ponder. But I was aghast when I came to the above quoted portion and I realized that David had, in fact, kept a grudge, and on his deathbed he was instructing Solomon to avenge him: “bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol.”
It’s a little surprise and funny that all these years that I have had the Bible close and been reading it, for had I been asked I would have sworn I had already read through 1 Kings 2 before, yet for the life in me try as I may I cannot bring myself to remember having read this strange passage before. No doubt most of us, from the much we have read and the stories we continually hear told about biblical characters, know so little and are aware only of one side and aspect to their personalities and actions. With the bit we know about David, who among us would have imagined that at the time of his death he would err as he did by going against God’s command, for it is God who says, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” In part due to David’s final admonishing, his son Solomon’s kingdom is established trough a terrifyingly bloody coup. In the space of just a single chapter (1 Kings 2), three notable men are executed: Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei.
Sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the net of such difficult and disturbing passages as this one. However, though we might be right in fearing that this later vindictive act stains and blots out David’s exceptional character as a man after God’s own heart, yet I now cannot help but be awed by the splendor and beauty of God’s word in this instant. And that not just in spite of these ostensible contradictions but because of them. Here again we are reminded of Gregory the Great when he says that holy Scripture is like a flood, wherein a Lamb may wade, and an Elephant swim; it being simple enough for the unlearned, and yet still accommodating for the greatest of theologians. We must admit that we are often snugged by certain passages in the Bible that reek of patriarchy, seem disturbingly unfair, sound contradictory, or just look absurd; for instance, in Judges 19:29, why does the Levite have to go through the bloody business of cutting his concubine limb by limb into twelve pieces that he sends throughout all the territory of Israel? The point may even, somehow, end up being lost on us. Here then, it’s clear just how much verity there is to celebrated in reading article XX of the 39 articles of the Anglican Church: “The Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith; and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God’s word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another.”
Faced by and stranded in such difficult portions in Scripture, the zealous ones among us must be on our guard lest we too, inadvertently, end up being guilty of Uzzah’s sin in 2 Samuel 6:6-7 when he put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it after the oxen had stumbled. God killed him. We must not give in to the temptation of imagining ourselves capable of and attempting to come to the Bible’s rescue, rummaging for explanations and arguments that would silence adversaries or lay all doubts to rest. Though the oxen may indeed stumble, and the ark seem as though it would fall, yet even then God will not let a man imagine that he was being of some help to the Lord of all glory, even if that help is good-intentioned as was Uzzah’s.
In that sense at least, we shouldn’t presume to help the Bible save face, we must let it say what it says and must deal with it’s themes as they are, no matter how unpalatable. And it is amazing what one finds when he patiently trusts and lets himself slowly get to the bottom of the matter. As it regards our salvation, most of us know God as loving and merciful more than we know him as being just. Yet God is in fact loving because he is just, something that’s, expectedly, not immediately apparent. What that comes to is that because of Adam’s sin, we all were meant to receive our just deserts, for God does indeed promise not to acquit the guilty, or leave us unpunished for our sin. The only way for God to satisfy his justice and be loving at the same time was for him to give up his Son Jesus, who tasted death for everyone and therefore bore the punishment of all. On, and through the cross, God’s wrath, which we should have borne was directed at him, not because of his sin but because of ours. It was God’s will to crush him, and upon him was the chastisement that made us whole. Though salvation costed us nothing, it costed God his Son, and now we are justified through his grace by Christ’s righteousness being imputed to us.
In law, the concept of double jeopardy does not allow a man to suffer twice for one crime. Christ has paid the price in full, and suffered once and for all, so that if we accept his sacrifice, we are forgiven and our sins blotted out and forgotten. Because Jesus bore our guilt, the Lord no longer charges us as guilty. Shimei was right in worrying that David would someday renege on his promise, and would in the end exact revenge on him for his sin, as David did indeed do. That because David was a man and not God; he couldn’t keep his promise, for though he didn’t kill Shimei himself, his son did so by his bidding, encouragement, and approval. It is these failures and weaknesses of men which Scriptures portrays so accurately, that contrasted with God’s righteous acts, excellently reveals and paints the perfections of God. We being the treacherous folks that we are, who never do faithfully keep their on end of the bargain, we must not then think of God as being one such as ourselves (Psalms 50:21). As long as every sin is repented of and forsaken, as long as our hope and assurance is in God, and in his Son Jesus Christ, we can stand confident and assured that on the last day we will not be at all ashamed. God will not do to us what David did to Shimei.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, it is difficult to make complete sense of just how much you have loved us in giving up your Son Jesus Christ for our sake. Thank you for the redemption that we have through his blood. Thank you because there’s no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. May we always abide in this assurance, and even if our hearts condemn us, thank you because you are greater than our hearts. In Jesus Name. Amen.