Extinguish My Ember

Lately, I have been delving into the scriptures about King David. 1 Samuel is a riveting storyline with fairly easy to understand foreshadowing of Jesus.

1 Samuel 23 has David inquiring of the Lord for himself but is given one of the most clear prophetic utterances of the Messiah. In verse 11 God answered, "He will come down" and verse 12 continued, "They will surrender you." (AMP)

This prophetic direction saved David and his men from Saul via the men of Keilah, but clearly speaks of the life of Jesus. This along with most of the early prognosticate scriptures, distinctly illustrate Jesus as the Sacrificial Lamb before the foundation of the earth.

2 Samuel with all the military maneuvers is a bit harder to follow or deduct parallels to our Savior. I plan to do more work to extrapolate the hidden gems of this book. Until then, I was struck by the wise women of 2 Samuel.  Both are nameless and in today's culture would probably be described as dramatic. 

The first is found in chapter 14 and is referred to as a wise woman of Tekoa. This wise woman pretended to be a widow who only had one son left because he killed his brother. She acted as though she was afraid her remaining son would die in the name of justice. Such justice, she professed, would "extinguish my ember." (NKJ) 

The wise woman of Tekoa went on to tell the king, if not welcomed home Adsolom will become like "water spilled on the ground. " (NKJ)

King David ultimately granted Joab the ability to bring back Absolom at the wise women's prompting, but Absolom would not be permitted to see the king. I question the wisdom of this decision but the women of authority successfully persuaded King David.

The second wise woman is found in chapter 20. Another traitor, Sheba, emerged and stirred up a revolt. Sheba is chased down to Abel of Beth Maachah. The king's men were in position to make the entire city suffer because of Sheba when our second wise woman cried out.

Verse 18 is a bit of a mystery.  The wise woman says, "They used to talk in former times, saying, "They shall surely seek guidance at Abel, and so they would end disputes…

The history she referenced is unknown to us but brought to remembrance significance in the mind of the one who held the fate of her city in his hands, Joab.

In verse 19 she went on to say, " I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy the city and a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the inheritance of the Lord?"

While her words are somewhat elusive for us her actions are not. She promised Sheba's head will be thrown over the city wall to Joab.

The wise woman or a "mother in Israel' continued on her diplomatic quest and spoke to the people of the city. In unity the "peaceable and faithful" people fulfilled her promise. Once Joab had Sheba's head, he withdrew from her city. 

Perilous times call for women to use their wisdom and their authority. The two wise women also teach me to allow God given traits, even poetry, to bring about God's will in times of trouble.