A Mother in Israel and the Price of Rebellion Text: 2 Samuel 20:14-22
Introduction: The Cost of Harboring Traitors
The kingdom of David has just survived a catastrophic civil war. Absalom, the favored son, is dead, and the nation is stitched back together in a fragile, resentful peace. But the embers of rebellion are still glowing. Before the dust can even settle, another worthless man, Sheba the son of Bichri, blows a trumpet of sedition and attempts to peel the northern tribes away from their allegiance to God's anointed. What follows is not a grand battle, but a tense siege at a city called Abel Beth-maacah. And the resolution of this crisis does not come from the clash of swords, but from the mouth of a wise woman.
This is a story about the anatomy of rebellion, the nature of corporate responsibility, and the wisdom of surgical justice. We live in a sentimental age that despises sharp lines and decisive action. We prefer to manage dysfunction rather than excise it. We are squeamish about judgment, and so we allow rebellion to fester in our churches, in our homes, and in our own hearts, foolishly believing that we can contain the infection. We think we can harbor a traitor without becoming traitors ourselves.
The scene before us is a powerful corrective to this kind of thinking. It teaches a hard but necessary lesson: peace is not the absence of conflict, but the result of righteousness. And sometimes, righteousness requires a head on a wall. The story of this unnamed woman in Abel is a master class in covenantal logic. She understands something that Joab, for all his military prowess, needs to be reminded of. She understands that God's people are His inheritance, and that to preserve the whole, you must be willing to deal ruthlessly with the cancerous part. This is not just ancient history; it is a timeless principle for maintaining the health of any covenant community.
The Text
Now he went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, even Beth-maacah, and all the Berites; and they were assembled and also came after him. So they came and besieged him in Abel Beth-maacah, and they cast up a siege ramp against the city, and it stood by the rampart; and all the people who were with Joab were wreaking destruction in order to cause the wall to fall. Then a wise woman called from the city, "Hear, hear! Please tell Joab, 'Draw near that I may speak with you.' " So he drew near to her, and the woman said, "Are you Joab?" And he answered, "I am." Then she said to him, "Listen to the words of your maidservant." And he answered, "I am listening." Then she spoke, saying, "Formerly they used to speak in this way, saying, 'They will surely ask advice at Abel,' and thus they ended the dispute. I am of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You are seeking to put to death a city, even a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the inheritance of Yahweh?" And Joab answered and said, "Far be it, far be it from me that I should swallow up or destroy! Such is not the case. But a man from the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against King David. Give him over alone, and I will go from the city." And the woman said to Joab, "Behold, his head will be thrown to you over the wall." Then the woman came to all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they were scattered from the city, each to his tent. Joab also returned to the king at Jerusalem.
(2 Samuel 20:14-22 LSB)
The Siege and the Impasse (vv. 14-15)
We begin with the pursuit and the siege.
"Now he went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, even Beth-maacah, and all the Berites; and they were assembled and also came after him. So they came and besieged him in Abel Beth-maacah, and they cast up a siege ramp against the city, and it stood by the rampart; and all the people who were with Joab were wreaking destruction in order to cause the wall to fall." (2 Samuel 20:14-15)
Sheba, the rebel, has found refuge in the city of Abel. And right behind him is Joab, the hammer of David's kingdom. Joab is a complicated figure, fiercely loyal to David's throne but often acting with a brutality that David himself abhors. Here, he does what generals do. He corners his enemy and prepares to smash the place that is hiding him. A siege ramp is built, and the battering rams are set to work. The policy is straightforward: if you harbor a traitor, you will be treated as a traitor.
This is the principle of corporate solidarity. The entire city of Abel is now implicated in Sheba's rebellion. By giving him sanctuary, they have made his crime their own. This is a concept our individualistic age struggles to grasp, but the Bible is full of it. Achan's sin brought trouble on all of Israel. One man's rebellion puts an entire city, an entire community, under the threat of judgment. This is why church discipline is so critical. When a church tolerates public, unrepentant sin, the entire church becomes complicit. The whole lump is leavened. Joab's siege ramp is a picture of the destructive consequences that come upon a people who refuse to deal with the evil in their midst.
The Voice of Wisdom (vv. 16-19)
Just as the wall is about to fall, a different kind of power intervenes.
"Then a wise woman called from the city, 'Hear, hear! Please tell Joab, 'Draw near that I may speak with you.' ' ... 'I am of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You are seeking to put to death a city, even a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the inheritance of Yahweh?' " (2 Samuel 20:16, 19)
Notice who speaks. Not the mayor, not the city elders, but an unnamed "wise woman." God delights in using the unexpected vessel. She doesn't panic or curse Joab. She is strategic. She knows who is in charge and asks to speak with him directly. She shows respect for his authority, "Listen to the words of your maidservant," which is precisely what gets him to listen.
Her argument is brilliant and profoundly theological. First, she appeals to her city's heritage. Abel was known as a place of wisdom, a place where disputes were settled. They are not a city of rebels. Second, she identifies herself and her people as "peaceable and faithful in Israel." They are part of the covenant family. This is not an enemy combatant she is addressing; it is a brother.
And then she delivers the master stroke. She reframes the entire conflict. Joab thinks he is conducting a military operation against a rebel stronghold. The woman tells him what he is actually doing: "You are seeking to put to death a city, even a mother in Israel." She personifies the city as a nurturing, life-giving entity within the nation. More than that, she asks, "Why would you swallow up the inheritance of Yahweh?" This is not just any piece of real estate. This city, these people, belong to God. They are His portion, His inheritance. Joab, in his zeal to crush a rebel, is about to commit sacrilege. He is about to destroy what belongs to God. She forces him to look past the tactical situation and see the covenantal reality.
The Just Terms of Peace (vv. 20-21)
The woman's wise appeal hits its mark. Joab, the hardened warrior, immediately recoils.
"And Joab answered and said, 'Far be it, far be it from me that I should swallow up or destroy! Such is not the case. But a man from the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against King David. Give him over alone, and I will go from the city.' " (2 Samuel 20:20-21)
Joab's response shows that he is, at his core, a loyal Israelite. He is horrified at the charge of destroying God's inheritance. He clarifies his mission. His war is not with Abel; his war is with Sheba. The problem is not the city; the problem is the traitor the city is hiding. This is the essence of true justice. It is not indiscriminate. It does not engage in collective punishment for its own sake. It identifies the specific source of the evil and isolates it.
The terms he offers are simple and just. "Give him over alone, and I will go." The deliverance of the entire city is tied to the removal of one guilty man. The principle is clear: to save the body, you must cut out the cancer. To save the community, you must expel the rebel. Peace and purity are linked. You cannot have one without the other. The city cannot be at peace with Joab until it is no longer at peace with Sheba.
Wisdom, a Severed Head, and Peace (v. 22)
The woman takes Joab's terms back to the people, and her wisdom prevails.
"Then the woman came to all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they were scattered from the city, each to his tent. Joab also returned to the king at Jerusalem." (2 Samuel 20:22)
The people of Abel are confronted with a stark choice: their city or their treasonous guest. They choose their city. They choose life. They understand that the price of their peace is the head of the man who brought war to their gates. The action is graphic, but it is the epitome of wisdom. They perform the necessary surgery. They cut off the head of the rebellion, the source of the infection, and throw it over the wall.
This act of decisive justice is the proof of their repentance. It demonstrates that they are, in fact, "peaceable and faithful in Israel." The moment the head is thrown, the threat is removed. Joab sees the evidence, sounds the trumpet to call off the attack, and the army dissolves. Peace is restored. The inheritance of the Lord is preserved. All of this happened because one wise woman had the courage to speak, and one city had the wisdom to cut off the source of its trouble.
The Gospel Over the Wall
This story is a living parable of how God deals with the rebellion of sin. Every one of us, by nature, has a Sheba in our hearts. We have harbored treason against our rightful King. We have lifted our hand against the Son of David, and our lives, our families, our churches are under siege because of it. The justice of God stands at the rampart, and the wall is about to fall.
The law demands, rightly, "Give him over alone." The soul that sins shall die. The rebellion must be punished. The head of the traitor is the price of peace. And if that were the end of the story, we would all be lost, for we are the traitors. We are the ones who deserve to have our heads thrown over the wall.
But the gospel is the story of a glorious, divine reversal. The wisdom of God provided a solution that satisfies justice and grants mercy. At the cross, the siege against us was lifted because a head was, in fact, cut off. But it was not ours. The Son of God, the true King, stood in the place of Sheba. He stood in our place. He embodied our rebellion, and He took the full force of the curse for our treason.
When Jesus bowed His head on the cross and said, "It is finished," the justice of God was satisfied. The head of our sinful rebellion was crushed. God's wrath was appeased, the trumpet of grace was sounded, and the armies of judgment were scattered. We who were under siege were told we could go to our tents in peace.
Therefore, the application for us is the same as it was for the people of Abel. Having been saved by this great act of substitution, we are now called to act in wisdom. We must go to the Sheba of our own indwelling sin, the pride, the lust, the bitterness that we have harbored in the city of our souls, and we must, by the power of the Spirit, cut off its head. This is what the Bible calls mortification. We do not do this to earn our salvation, but because we have already been saved. We kill sin in us because Christ was killed for us. We throw the head of our old man over the wall in gratitude to the King who lifted the siege.