It was a sad day for the
children of Israel. The king's son, Absalom, had rebelled against
his father and tried to take over the throne. King David's armies
had fought against Absalom and his rebels, defeating them and
chasing them away. David loved his son and had told his army not
to hurt Absalom. Joab, the king's general, disobeyed David and
killed Absalom anyway. Now someone had to go tell David that his
son was dead.
Joab buried Absalom in
the woods while everyone wondered how to break the news to the
king. A young man walked up to Joab and asked if he could go and
deliver the message to the king. When Joab saw that it was Ahimaaz,
he said, "No, you are not the one to go and carry the news
today because the king's son is dead." This made Ahimaaz
feel bad. To him it seemed like no one ever took him seriously.
People were always making fun of him and whispering behind his
back. When Joab sent another boy to run to the king, Ahimaaz felt
worse. He told Joab that he wanted to run no matter what happened.
Joab was in a very grouchy mood and told him to go ahead and run
if he wanted to.
For Ahimaaz, this was
his chance to show everybody that he was not as foolish as they
thought he was. He knew a shortcut and before long he was far
ahead of the first messenger. Ahimaaz was very proud of himself.
He wasn't thinking about how sad the king would be when he heard
the news. All he could think about was being the first runner
to arrive at the gate. He was sure this would cause people to
stop making fun of him. The guards above the gate could tell it
was Ahimaaz by the way he ran. Possibly they had made fun of the
way he had run on other days.
When Ahimaaz got to the
gate he suddenly realized that he'd forgotten what he was supposed
to tell the king. The king was kind to Ahimaaz and told him to
wait until the other messenger arrived, but Ahimaaz was very embarrassed.
No one laughed at Ahimaaz that day, but when the king had received
the message and began to cry, Ahimaaz was very ashamed that he
had been thinking of his own feelings and had been a foolish messenger.
Taken from II Samuel 18:19-23