![\"7.png\"](\"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/7-ifFqgEMTsOIP.png\")
<\/a> <\/p>Absalom\u2019s whole mess had just settled down, and King David finally made it back to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
You\u2019d think things would finally calm down, and everybody could get back to doing what they were supposed to do.<\/p>\n
But guess what?<\/p>\n
Here we go again.<\/p>\n
This time, a man named Sheba showed up and started stirring things up.<\/p>\n
Sheba was a Benjamite, the son of Bichri.<\/p>\n
As soon as he saw David had returned, he started causing trouble:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do we have to do with David?<\/p>\n
We have no share in Jesse\u2019s son!<\/p>\n
Israelites, everybody go home!\u201d<\/p>\n
And believe it or not, people actually listened to him.<\/p>\n
A lot of the Israelites left David and followed Sheba.<\/p>\n
Seriously? Things had barely settled down, and now they were splitting up again.<\/p>\n
But the men of Judah didn\u2019t follow him.<\/p>\n
They stayed close to King David and escorted him all the way from the Jordan River back to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
After David returned to Jerusalem, he still had plenty to deal with.<\/p>\n
The ten concubines he had left behind to take care of the palace had been taken by Absalom. So David provided for them and kept them under protection, but he no longer had relations with them.<\/p>\n
Then David called Amasa.<\/p>\n
David said to him:<\/p>\n
\u201cGo quickly and gather the men of Judah.<\/p>\n
Bring them back here within three days, and you come back here too.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Amasa went.<\/p>\n
But there was a problem\u2014<\/p>\n
He took too long.<\/p>\n
Three days passed, and he still hadn\u2019t returned.<\/p>\n
David realized he couldn\u2019t wait any longer.<\/p>\n
So he said to Abishai:<\/p>\n
\u201cSheba is going to be more dangerous than Absalom.<\/p>\n
Take my men and go after him.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t let him get into a fortified city. If he gets in there, it\u2019ll be much harder to catch him.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Abishai and the army went after Sheba.<\/p>\n
And this is where Joab came along too.<\/p>\n
They met Amasa near Gibeon.<\/p>\n
Joab walked up to him, acting all friendly:<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, brother! How are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked like an old friend who hadn\u2019t seen him in years.<\/p>\n
Amasa wasn\u2019t suspicious at all.<\/p>\n
But who would have thought?<\/p>\n
Joab was definitely not someone you wanted to mess around with.<\/p>\n
While pretending to greet Amasa, Joab grabbed him by the beard as if he were going to kiss him.<\/p>\n
Then he struck him with his sword.<\/p>\n
Amasa fell dead.<\/p>\n
And just like that, Joab continued leading the army after Sheba.<\/p>\n
One of Joab\u2019s young men saw that everyone was stopping to look at Amasa\u2019s body, so he shouted:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever supports Joab, and whoever is loyal to David, follow Joab!\u201d<\/p>\n
People saw Amasa lying in the road and didn\u2019t want to stop any longer.<\/p>\n
The young man moved Amasa\u2019s body off the main road and covered him with a garment.<\/p>\n
Then everyone continued after Sheba.<\/p>\n
Sheba ran through the tribes of Israel.<\/p>\n
Eventually, he came to a city called Abel Beth Maakah.<\/p>\n
He probably thought:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis place looks safe. I\u2019ll hide here.\u201d<\/p>\n
But then Joab and his army showed up.<\/p>\n
And when they arrived\u2014<\/p>\n
Yep. They surrounded the city.<\/p>\n
Joab\u2019s army began building siege works against the city.<\/p>\n
The city wall was about to collapse.<\/p>\n
People inside the city were probably thinking:<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay\u2026 what are we supposed to do now?\u201d<\/p>\n
And then a woman stepped forward.<\/p>\n
This woman was something else.<\/p>\n
She saw what was happening, but she didn\u2019t panic.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t start screaming.<\/p>\n
She went straight to the city wall and called out to Joab:<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, Joab!<\/p>\n
Come over here. I need to talk to you!\u201d<\/p>\n
Joab came over.<\/p>\n
The woman asked:<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you Joab?\u201d<\/p>\n
He said:<\/p>\n
\u201cI am.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said:<\/p>\n
\u201cListen to what your servant has to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joab replied:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m listening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then the woman asked:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy are you trying to destroy our city?<\/p>\n
We are a peaceful and faithful city in Israel.<\/p>\n
Why would you destroy what belongs to the Lord?\u201d<\/p>\n
That was a pretty good question.<\/p>\n
Joab didn\u2019t argue with her.<\/p>\n
He explained:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not trying to destroy your whole city.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re only looking for one man.<\/p>\n
His name is Sheba, son of Bichri.<\/p>\n
He has rebelled against King David.<\/p>\n
If you hand him over to us, we\u2019ll leave the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman thought about it and basically said:<\/p>\n
\u201cOh\u2026<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s all you want?\u201d<\/p>\n
Then she went back into the city and talked to the people.<\/p>\n
Using her wisdom, she convinced them what needed to be done.<\/p>\n
The people agreed:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to let one man\u2019s rebellion destroy the whole city.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then\u2014<\/p>\n
Chop!<\/p>\n
Sheba\u2019s head was cut off and thrown over the wall to Joab.<\/p>\n
Joab looked at it and basically said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright. Problem solved.\u201d<\/p>\n
He blew the trumpet.<\/p>\n
The army left.<\/p>\n
And the people of the city were saved.<\/p>\n
Joab and his army returned to Jerusalem and reported to King David.<\/p>\n
Joab continued as commander of Israel\u2019s army.<\/p>\n
The other officials also continued in their positions.<\/p>\n
And for the moment, things were back in order.<\/p>\n
But when we look at this story more closely, there are some important questions we can ask ourselves.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s Think About It
\n1. Why do some people find it so easy to follow the crowd?<\/p>\n
Especially when they haven\u2019t really stopped to think things through?<\/p>\n
Sheba only had to say a few words, and many Israelites followed him.<\/p>\n
Sometimes people hear something that sounds convincing, get caught up in the emotions of the moment, and simply go along with everyone else.<\/p>\n
Have you ever followed the crowd before, only to realize later that you hadn\u2019t really thought about what you were doing?<\/p>\n
2. Does wisdom always come from people with power or authority?<\/p>\n
Not necessarily.<\/p>\n
Sometimes the wisest person in the room is the person nobody expected.<\/p>\n
In this story, it was an unnamed woman.<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t a king.<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t a military commander.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t have an army.<\/p>\n
She was simply a woman living in the city.<\/p>\n
But when everyone else was facing fear and confusion, she stepped forward with wisdom and courage.<\/p>\n
Who would have thought that this woman would be the one who helped solve the crisis and save the entire city?<\/p>\n
Her wisdom prevented the whole city from being destroyed because of one man\u2019s rebellion.<\/p>\n
Maybe there\u2019s a lesson here for us:<\/p>\n
Never underestimate the quiet, ordinary, or overlooked people around you.<\/p>\n
God can use someone who seems insignificant in the eyes of the world to make an enormous difference.<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s something worth thinking about:<\/p>\n
Who are the people around you that others may overlook\u2014but who might actually have wisdom, courage, and something important to teach us?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sarah Absalom\u2019s whole mess had just settled down, and King David finally made it back to Jerusalem. You\u2019d think things would finally calm down, and everybody could get back to doing what they were supposed to do. But guess what? Here we go again. This time, a man named Sheba showed up and started stirring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-reflection"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10459,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10458\/revisions\/10459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}