Now it came to pass when David was in Edom, when Joab the captain of the host had gone up to bury the slain, after he had smitten every male in Edom
This verse looks back years before Solomon's reign, to Joab's war in Edom, where he struck down every male. One child escaped, and decades later God raised him up as an enemy to the unfaithful Solomon.
One writer sees God's hand in the escape itself. The boy who got away from Joab was kept alive for a purpose.
Now he comes forward. God is wise, and He kept that young prince to be a sting to king Solomon. But this is some comfort to us. I may say it is almost the only comfort the story of king Solomon gives us — that God disciplined him. He did not merely let the fruit of his evil, the results of his folly, show in his family. He disciplined Solomon himself, in his own lifetime.
The same writer goes further. Discipline now is one mark of a real child of God:
This is His way with His own people. In some cases it is almost the only hope you have that a person is a child of God: God does not let the evil pass. He deals with it now, in this world.
The events of this verse belong to David's day. The trouble they produced came out only when Solomon was old. Writers see a settled pattern in that gap:
The Lord does not begin to discipline His people at once, or quickly. At least, that is not His usual way. Our sin may find us out years and years after we commit it. The Lord may bring our ways back to mind long after we have left them and turned to better ones.
Solomon had married Edomite women, among others. The adversary God raised up came out of Edom. One writer sees the discipline shaped to fit the fault:
Solomon kept company with foreigners, his heart was led astray, and enemies rise up in the very places that supplied his pleasures (1 Kings 11). A man's self-made plans and wilful choices always come back to him with a harvest of results. If he would only hear the Voice speaking in them, that harvest would bring him down before God, confessing his own helplessness and sin. There he would receive the lifting up that God always gives to those who humble themselves under His mighty hand.
The cost was the one thing his reign had been famous for:
Peace, the fruit that marked this reign, is destroyed. Solomon passes through a time full of troubles, revolts, and plots against his throne. Nations such as Egypt once counted an alliance with him an honour. Now they feed, honour, and support his worst enemies.
One writer traces Hadad's hatred past its obvious cause:
Edom was filled with deadly hatred against Israel, because David, by the hand of Joab, had cut off all the males of that land. Hadad had escaped with a few servants. But had his hatred grown any less because Solomon had taken Edomite women as wives? One feeling in the heart of Hadad speaks more loudly than all the honours and delights of Egypt's court: hatred, hatred against Solomon. He gives up all his advantages to satisfy it. No doubt the conduct of David's men had given him the motive, but Joab and David were dead, and the hatred went on. Underneath it all, the world always hates the Lord's anointed. The behaviour of believers, whether more or less blameworthy, only serves as an excuse for this hatred.
One writer reads the two countries as pictures. The boy who fled Edom found a welcome in Egypt:
Hadad was an Edomite who had fled to Egypt when Joab under David had reduced the Edomites to almost nothing (vs.14-16). Hadad gained such favour with Pharaoh king of Egypt that Pharaoh gave him his own wife's sister as a wife (v.19). Edom pictures the flesh, while Egypt stands for the world. The world will always be friendly with the flesh, and Hadad was well off in Egypt.
One writer turns this into a warning about our own dealings with the world:
The world is like Hadad and Rezon. The cross of Christ gives us our place towards it: by that cross the world is crucified to us, and we to the world (Galatians 6:14). As long as we keep that place, and count the world a defeated enemy (John 16:33), it does not make a move. But let us make an alliance with it, and it cannot forget its defeat. It may keep up an appearance of indifference, but it will not hate us any less.
- Kept. God's wisdom preserved the child who escaped Joab's sword, to make him a sting to Solomon at the right moment.
- Delayed. Discipline rarely comes at once. Sin can find a person out years later, long after they have turned to better ways.
- Matched. The enemy came from the very nation Solomon had married into. Our own plans come back to us with a harvest of results.
- Unchanged. Egypt's honours and Solomon's Edomite marriages did nothing to soften Hadad. The world's hatred uses our conduct as an excuse, not a cause.
- Comforting. God dealt with Solomon in his own lifetime instead of letting the evil pass. That is the mark of a Father's care.
(for Joab abode there six months with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom),
This verse is a note in brackets. It looks back years earlier, to the campaign in which David's commander Joab wiped out the men of Edom. The detail seems out of place in Solomon's story — until you notice that one boy escaped, and that God was keeping him.
The verse explains where Edom's hatred of Israel's king came from. One writer notes that the men behind it were already dead, and the hatred lived on.
Edom was filled with deadly hatred against Israel because David, by the hand of Joab, had cut off all the males of that land (2 Samuel 8:13-14; 1 Chronicles 18:12; Psalm 60, heading). Hadad had escaped with a few servants... No doubt the conduct of David's companions had given the motive for it, but Joab and David were dead: the hatred continued. Underneath it all, the world always hates the Lord's anointed. The conduct of believers, whether more or less blameworthy, only gives that hatred a pretext.
Joab's work was not complete. One writer sees God's wisdom in the child who slipped away.
Now he comes forward. God is wise, and that young prince was kept to be a sting to king Solomon. But this is a little comfort to us, and indeed, I may say, almost the only comfort we have in the history given us of king Solomon — that God chastised him. He chastised him, not merely allowing the fruit of his evil, the results of his folly, to appear in his family, but chastised him himself in his own lifetime. Those whom God passes over in spite of their evil are clearly waiting to be condemned with the world. But those who are guilty and whom He deals with now are objects of His fatherly care.
Hadad had his own reasons. God had His. One writer says our first question, when enemies rise, belongs to God.
When enemies rise up against us our first appeal should be to God as to why He has permitted it. The enemies themselves may have no thought of God, but they may still be His instruments for the discipline of His people. The cruel Assyrian was the rod of the Lord's anger toward Israel — "but he does not so intend" (Isaiah 10:5-7). The Hebrew Christians were suffering, and they were close to giving up. Their suffering seemed to come from the persecution of godless men. But it was also the Father's gracious chastening.
Solomon's enemy came out of a nation he had used for his own pleasure. One writer treats that as a pattern, not an accident.
Solomon kept company with foreigners, his heart was led astray, and enemies rose up in the very places he had drawn on to please himself. Man's self-chosen plans and wilful choices always come back on him with a harvest of results. If he would only hear the Voice speaking in those results, they would bring him down before God, owning his helplessness and sinfulness. There he receives the lifting up that God always gives to those who humble themselves under His mighty hand.
Hadad found shelter in Egypt. One writer reads the two countries as pictures.
Hadad was an Edomite who had fled to Egypt when Joab under David had reduced the Edomites to almost nothing. Hadad gained favour with Pharaoh king of Egypt, who even gave him his own wife's sister as a wife. Edom pictures the flesh, while Egypt symbolises the world. The world will always be friendly with the flesh, and Hadad was well off in Egypt.
One writer sets a proverb beside two kings of Judah who found it true, then turns it on the reader.
"When a man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Proverbs 16:7). So Asa proved, and Jehoshaphat his son. Both these kings had quietness and rest round about, because they did the will of God... It is a solemn thing when God has to enter into controversy with any of us, but "if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged" (1 Corinthians 11:31).
- Kept — one child survived six months of slaughter. One writer sees God preserving him as a future sting for a king who was not yet reigning.
- Kept waiting — Hadad's hatred outlived Joab and David. The world always hates the Lord's anointed, and our conduct only gives that hatred a pretext.
- Kept for discipline — an enemy with no thought of God can still be His instrument. The Assyrian was a rod in His hand, and so was the suffering of the Hebrew Christians.
- Kept close — Edom pictures the flesh and Egypt the world. The two are always friendly, and Hadad was well off in Egypt.
- Kept from judgment — self-chosen plans come back as a harvest. But when God deals with us now, it is the mark of His fatherly care. If we judge ourselves, we are not judged.