Bible in One Year Day 128 (2 Samuel 10, 1 Chronicles 13, Psal 31)

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Day 128:  Mighty Men of Valor 

Agape Bible Study 

2 Samuel 10

Chapter 10: The Ammonite War and Victory over the Aramaeans

Chapters 10:1-11:1 are the detailed account of what was summarized in chapter 8. There is a parallel account of the Ammonite and Aramean war in 1 Chronicles 19:1-20:8. The parallel to this first part of the narrative is found in 1 Chronicles 19:1-5.
2 Samuel 10:1-5 ~ David's Ambassadors are insulted by the Ammonites

In the first major battle of his reign, King Saul's Israelite army conquered the army of King Nahash of the Ammonites after they besieged Jabesh-Gilead and drove them out of the Transjordan tribal lands of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh (1 Sam chapter 11). After David came to the throne and successfully fought the Philistines, the same King Nahash of the Ammonites, or the son who succeeded him with the same name, apparently made a peace treaty with David. The Ammonites occupied the lands to the east of the Transjordan Israelite tribes with their capital at Rabbah-Ammon (the capital city Amman, Jordan).

Question: Hearing of the death of his ally, what diplomatic gesture did David make?
Answer: He sent envoys to offer his condolences to the new king.

Question: What was the response of the new king of the Ammonites to David's diplomatic mission?
Answer: He insulted David by humiliating his envoys and treating them with contemp.

The parallel to this part of the narrative is found in 1 Chronicles 19:6-15.
2 Samuel 10:6-14 ~ The First Ammonite and Aramaean Campaign
When the Ammonites realized that their treatment of David's envoys will cause the Israelites to come against them, they immediately contacted their allies and hired mercenaries. They drew support from the two Aramaean city-states of Beth-Rehob and Zobah, from the city of Maacah, a small city-state south of Mount Herman (southern Syria), and mercenaries from Tob, a town of "worthless men" (Judg 11:3-5) probably located about twelve miles northeast of Ramoth-Gilead. The Ammonites determined that these additional soldiers were necessary in order to defeat the Israelites. The Aramaean city-states of Zobah and Beth-Rehob, to the north of the sources of the Jordan River at Mount Herman, were united under Hadadezer's suzerainty. Maaacah and Tob were to the north of Transjordan.

Notice that David is no longer leading the assault against the enemy but is entrusting the army to Joab and his commanders (see 2 Sam 21:15-17). David's elite fighting force of thirty champions is named in 1 Chronicles 11:10-47. There are seven Gentiles, perhaps converts, among David's champions, including a Hittite name Uriah (1 Chr 11:41).

Question: What is Joab's strategy?
Answer: Joab also divides his army; he leads one half of the Israelite army and has them turn to face the mercenary force lead by the Aramaeans to their rear while the other half of the army led by his brother Abishai prepares to engage the Ammonites.

Joab first engages the Aramaean army and when the Ammonites see that the Israelites are winning and their allies are retreating, they lose their courage and withdraw into the city. The Israelites win because God is with them.

The parallel to this part of the narrative is found in 1 Chronicles 19:16-19.
2 Samuel 10:15-19 ~ The Final Victory over the Aramaeans

After their defeat, King Hadadezer of Zobah calls for reinforcements from Aramaean towns in the Transjordan. The Aramaean army gathers at Helam, a city in the Transjordan east of the Sea of Galilee, under the command of a Zobahian (Syrian) general named Shobach. Before they can march to the aid of the Ammonites, they are attacked by the Israelites and defeated.

The narrative is not suggesting that David personally fought the Aramaeans (verses 17-18) but that the army of David engaged and defeated the enemy. This is the end of Aramaean hostility against Israel during the period of the United Monarchy. The Aramaean city-states became vassals of Israel, paying the state of Israel an annual tribute. David has systematically defeated Israel's enemies and turned them into vassals recognizing the suzerainty of the nation of Israel. Only the Ammonites are left and David will deal with this last enemy on Israel's borders in the spring.

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A Daily Defense 
Day 128 Objections to the General Resurrection

CHALLENGE: “The resurrection of the dead is absurd. An ancient might believe that God could reanimate dead bodies, but after death our bodies are broken down into their constituent elements. Further, particles from one person’s body can end up in another person’s body.”

DEFENSE: Belief in the afterlife is a human universal. This is a sign that it exists. The question is what form it takes. God has revealed that the afterlife includes an eventual bodily resurrection. He has demonstrated this by raising Jesus from the dead (on the connection between Jesus’ Resurrection and ours, see 1 Cor. 15).

The idea that the ancients could believe in the resurrection of the dead because they were unsophisticated is chronological snobbery. They were as aware as we that the body decomposes into tiny particles. In the first book of the Bible, God proclaims to man: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19).

In Jesus’ day it was customary to entomb a body and then, once the flesh had rotted off the bones, to return, clean the bones, and place them in a container known as an ossuary. People were thus brought into immediate contact with the decay of their loved ones’ bodies. Nor were the ancients ignorant of the fact that—through cannibalism or less direct means—matter from one person’s body could end up in another’s. The medieval philosophers explored this question in detail.

The fundamental part of man that guarantees personal identity over time is the soul, which is the “form” of the body (CCC 365). However, over the course of our lives, the matter that makes up our bodies changes dramatically.

The International Theological Commission notes: “The Church has never taught that the very same matter is required for the body to be said to be the same. But the cult of relics, whereby Christians profess that the bodies of the saints who were living members of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit must be raised and glorified by Christ, shows that the resurrection cannot be explained independently of the body that once lived” (Some Current Questions in Eschatology 1.2.5).

Christian theology thus holds that the resurrected body is connected with the one that previously lived but not that it contains all the matter that was ever part of it in life.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist