Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, the high priest, offers to run
and tell David the news “that the Lord has delivered him from the hand of his
enemies.” Joab, remembering what happened when a runner told David of news of
Saul and Jonathan, how David had him executed, believes this to be a fool’s
errand and calls for a foreigner, a Cushite, to take this news to David. Ahimaaz persists in his desire and ultimately
Joab allows him to go as well, perhaps with the idea that the Cushite will
arrive first. Ahimaaz, however, is
faster but also he has his own game to play in the matter. He has to have known that Absalom has been
killed in battle but denies any such knowledge when David asks. In doing so, he gets to be the bearer of good
news, that David’s army has prevailed and, therefore, he will be able to go
back and take over as king, but not the bad news, that will be the work of the
Cushite runner. Ahimaaz gets the glory,
this man can receive the condemnation of the king.
When the Pharisees and Herodians collaborate you know there’s
something wrong. The Herodians were the
ultimate compromisers with Rome and the Pharisees would ordinarily have never
had anything to do with them. In the case
of Jesus, however, there was a common enemy, He was a threat to both. They would not have been in agreement on the
issue of paying taxes because that required the Pharisees to recognize Caesar
as king when only God was king, but all they wanted was to get Jesus on the
record. His answer points to the
likeness question. The coin bore Caesar’s
likeness and we bear God’s, therefore we are to render according to
likeness. The Sadducees, not to be
outdone or left out of the plot to entrap Jesus, ask the ridiculous question
only they could ask as they didn’t believe in resurrection at all. The answer they receive is biblical and at
the same time points to the reality that the after life is not analogous to
this life, there is no reproduction in the next life. They are all too smart by half.
Wouldn’t you love to know what the tribune did to those who
were plotting against Paul? Surely he took it as a personal affront as well
that they were planning to trick him in order to accomplish their mission. He sent Paul off to Felix with quite an
impressive guard, two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen and two hundred
spearmen. The tribune can find nothing in
Paul that deserves the death penalty under Roman law, and that is the law by
which Paul must be tried in order to receive capital punishment as he is a
Roman citizen. The plot is also
disclosed to the governor who can then question them as to their murderous
intentions. The buck has been passed
effectively up the ladder of government and Paul is now to be treated as a
Roman with respect to the law, and their law trumps Jewish law in the
realm. Gamesmanship is the way of the world,
not of the church, yet we are to wise as serpents, innocent as doves.
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