Dear Friends,

The idea that people can get away with committing crimes is nothing new. It seemed that Joab literally was going to get away with murder until Solomon dealt with him. Today’s devotional explains. God bless you.

Because of Calvary,

John Janney

• I Kings 2:28-35

  1 Kings 2:28-35    English Standard Version (ESV)
  28 When the news came to Joab—for Joab had supported Adonijah although he had not supported Absalom—Joab fled to the tent of the Lord and caught hold of the horns of the altar. 29 And when it was told King Solomon, “Joab has fled to the tent of the Lord, and behold, he is beside the altar,” Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, strike him down.” 30 So Benaiah came to the tent of the Lord and said to him, “The king commands, ‘Come out.’” But he said, “No, I will die here.” Then Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, “Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.” 31 The king replied to him, “Do as he has said, strike him down and bury him, and thus take away from me and from my father’s house the guilt for the blood that Joab shed without cause. 32 The Lord will bring back his bloody deeds on his own head, because, without the knowledge of my father David, he attacked and killed with the sword two men more righteous and better than himself, Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah. 33 So shall their blood come back on the head of Joab and on the head of his descendants forever. But for David and for his descendants and for his house and for his throne there shall be peace from the Lord forevermore.” 34 Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and struck him down and put him to death. And he was buried in his own house in the wilderness. 35 The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada over the army in place of Joab, and the king put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar.

I Kings 2:28-35

“The punishment of Adonijah and Abiathar was quite sufficient to warn Joab of his approaching fate, and lead him to seek to save his life by fleeing to the altar. It is true that, according to Ex. 21:13, 14, the altar could afford no protection to a man who had committed two murders. But he probably thought no more of these crimes, which had been committed a long time before, but simply of his participation in Adonijah’s usurpation; and he might very well hope that religious awe would keep Solomon from putting him to death in a holy place for such a crime as that. And it is very evident that this hope was not altogether a visionary one, from the fact that, according to v. 30, when Joab refused to leave the altar at the summons addressed to him in the name of the king, Benaiah did not give him the death-blow at once, but informed Solomon of the fact and received his further commands. Solomon, however, did not arrest the course of justice, but ordered him to be put to death there and afterwards buried…. When…Solomon gives special orders for the burial of Joab, the meaning is that Benaiah is to provide for the burial with distinct reference to the services which Joab had rendered to his father. ‘And take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me and my father’s house.’ So long as Joab remained unpunished for the double murder, the blood-guiltiness rested upon the king and his house, on whom the duty of punishment devolved (cf. Num. 35:30, 31; Deut. 19:13)…. The words of Solomon in v. 33a point back to the curse which David uttered upon Joab and his descendants after the murder of Abner (2 Sam. 3:28, 29). ‘But to David, and his seed, and his house, and his throne, let there be salvation for ever from Jehovah.’ This wish sprang from a conviction, based upon 2 Sam. 7:14, that the Lord would not fulfill His promise to David unless his successors upon the throne exercised right and justice according to the command of the Lord.”

[C. F. Keil, “The Books of the Kings,” translated by James Martin, Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament III, (Peabody, MA, Hendrickson Publishers, 1876), p. 27]

“…The holiness of any place should never countenance the wickedness of any person.”

[Matthew Henry’s Commentary II, (Peabody, MA: Hendriksen Publishers, n.d.), p. 450]