It seems as though Joab, commander of David’s army, has a mean streak. The text doesn’t implicate why he killed Amasa, who rounded up Judah’s army for the sake of King David. We can devise, however, that maybe Joab wanted to be in charge of everyone, and it’s possible that Amasa was leading troops that Joab wanted to lead himself. I thought this was a weird side story, mostly because it’s vague and doesn’t indicate why Joab killed Amasa, but we can see that Joab is at least loyal to David. I love the ending paragraph, which names several prominent individuals who served King David. Even though I don’t know their stories and can’t really relate to their names, I found it a nice touch of recorded history because it tells us more about the set-up of Israel. They had a commander of the army (Joab), captain of the king’s bodyguard (Benaiah), a labor “commissioner,” if you will, (Adoniram), a royal historian (Jehoshaphat), a court secretary (Sheva) and head priests (Zadok and Abiathar). And David had his own personal priest (Ira). The line-up is much the same in modern countries today. Fascinating. The text shows us that Israel, as well as our modern-day governments, rely on the actions and wisdom of many.
Writing prompt: teams
Have you been part of a team? I think about everyone has in one way or another, but as individuals, we often overlook the value of our teammates. Write about a time when you were part of a team. Did you have backstabbers like Joab? How did you mesh with one another? Include details of your role and how your teammates responded to whatever task you were trying to accomplish.
jugglingfire.com 