The Burden of a Crown

The Burden of a Crown
Words of Faith 2-18-25
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2025
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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2 Samuel 12:26-31
[26] Meanwhile, Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal citadel. [27] Joab then sent messengers to David, saying, "I have fought against Rabbah and taken its water supply. [28] Now muster the rest of the troops and besiege the city and capture it. Otherwise, I will take the city, and it will be named after me." [29] So David mustered the entire army and went to Rabbah, and attacked and captured it. [30] He took the crown from the head of their king--its weight was a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones--and it was placed on David's head. He took a great quantity of plunder from the city [31] and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes, and he made them work at brickmaking. He did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then David and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.

During this time of healing and the birth of Solomon, the Ammonite war continued under Joab's leadership. He had all but captured the Ammonite capital, Rabbah, having taken the royal citadel and the city's water supply. In order that David might gain credit for the fall of Rabbah, Joab urged the king to lead the final assault himself.
Remember that Joab was highly loyal to King David. But they also each "owed" the other something. David had overlooked Joab's murder of Abner, the commander of Saul's army, to exact family vengeance. Then Joab carried out the conspiracy to kill Uriah on the battlefield. Joab was a military leader of great prowess, but could also function as a hatchet man. They were tied by private and political debts.
David did arrive at the battle just in time to attach his name to the conquest of Rabbah. He oversaw the city being sacked and plundered. Rabbah, one of the most strategically significant cities in the Transjordanian region, would now become part of David's domain.
What did David get out of this? It is interesting. This war and conquest were strategically important, but David may have also been rehabilitating his name and reputation. It is difficult to tell how much of David's sin was known among the people, but Nathan had announced that the sin of David had made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt (12:14). Political leaders will sometimes do almost anything to preserve their image.
When David attached his presence and name to this conquest, two things came to him-- a crown and a lot of people.
Among the treasures plundered at Rabbah was the 75-pound (one talent) golden crown of the Ammonite king. It isn't easy to imagine what this crown could have looked like. It may have been a ceremonial crown worn only on special occasions. It was extremely valuable but more of a burden than anything else.
The second thing was a lot of people. In ancient war, conquered people were a problem. As a way of controlling them, they were usually enslaved for labor. David put the survivors of Rabbah to work as slaves using saws, iron picks, and axes and in brick-making. We cannot help but see the irony of this in light of the history of the Hebrews as slaves and brick-makers in Egypt.
What we see here is that not every crown is one we should seek, and not every conquest is easy. When David attached his name to the conquest, what came with the honor was the crown. In this case, there was a huge burden even in just the crown! With that burden came the burden of a conquered people. David probably never set out to enslave anyone, yet that was exactly where he ended up.

Father God, may I pursue no crown except the righteousness found only in You. May I pursue no conquest except for mastery of my self as vessel surrendered to You. May I do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than myself. May I be found looking only to my own interests, but also to the interests of others. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2025
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2025 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.