Here…catch!

A “through the bible” devotion from 2 Samuel 20.

After Absalom’s death, David has a lot of loose ends to tie up when he returns to Jerusalem. One of them is Sheba who hails from the tribe of Benjamin. He doesn’t support David and rallies others to revolt, too.

Joab, David’s general, leads the search for Sheba and finally besieges the city of Abel Beth-maacah where he’s hiding. With assault ramps in place, they are ready to topple the wall and destroy the city to get to Sheba.

A wise woman speaks to Joab and asks if there might be a peaceful solution. Joab says, “Sure. Just give us Sheba.”

The woman promises, “We’ll throw his head over the wall.” Sure enough, she gets the people to cut off Sheba’s head and toss it to Joab (2 Samuel 20:22).

I’ve thrown pumpkins off the top of a fraternity house. Please don’t ask me why we did this. It must have been after the annual pumpkin patch raid and a lot of beer. It was fun. And it was a mess.

A human head hitting the ground? Not fun. Bloody. Disgusting. A city escapes destruction. Joab and David win a victory. And someone gets to take home a head!

I don’t remember coloring a page about this in Sunday School. We would have needed some extra red crayons!