Turns Out He CAN Just Wait To Be King

II Samuel Chapter 2, the Strange and the Spectacular

Verses: 32

Is It Read At Synagogue?: No.

Famous Quotes/Phrases: The name of Saul’s son Ish-Boshet means “man of embarrassment”. How’d you like to go through life known as that? But as we’ll soon see, it’s not the only name he has …

Basic Plot: David asks God where he should go next. God advises him to go to Hebron; upon his arrival he is anointed as king of the tribe of Judah. But Saul’s general, Abner, has other ideas, and establishes Ish-Boshet as king of the rest of Israel.

It isn’t long before Abner and his army take up arms against Yoav, David’s chief general. David’s man are victorious in the initial battle, but not before Abner kills Ashael, one of Yoav’s brothers. By the time the fighting ceases, 360 of Saul’s men had fallen, compared to only 20 of David’s men.

What’s Strange: While Saul’s son is known at some points as Ish-Boshet, there are other times when he’s called Ish-Baal. “You don’t have to be a champion linguist to notice something curious about Ishbaal’s name,” asks David Plotz in his book Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible. “Why would the king of Israel be named after Baal? … It suggests that at least some Israelites retained close ties to Baal, despite their nominal monotheistic worship of Yahweh.”

It’s further evidence showing that Saul’s devotion to God isn’t always absolute. He shares this tendency with many subsequent kings of Israel.

What’s Spectacular: Based on what we know about King Saul’s life and character, it seems bizarre that people would remain devoted to him, especially after his death. After all, David constantly shows himself to be the more talented and, arguably, qualified leader, and yet Abner and Saul’s men still fight on their boss’s behalf even after his death.

One could chalk this up to the basic desire to maintain power, or at least access to power. But I wonder whether Saul’s men also are desperate to maintain the status quo, regardless of how unrealistic that is. This is a very human tendency; we often accept the possibility of change slowly, comforted more by the idea that keeping things the same is the best way, regardless of how flawed it is.

Of course, refusing to change even when we know we need to is a sure-fire way to never grow or get past our most important mistakes. As we observe Yom Kippur next week, let us approach our journey toward atonement differently than Abner and the rest of Saul’s loyalists; let us consider that altering the status quo isn’t as scary as it may seem.

Shabbat Shalom, and G’mar Hatimah Tovah — wishing you a good conclusion to the High Holidays!