God's Judgment through Wicked Conspirators and Weak Magistrates

What are we to make of Joab and the cunning actress from Tekoa? Pastor leads his family in today's "Hopewell @Home" passage. 2Samuel 14:1–22 prepares us for the first serial reading in the morning worship service on the coming Lord's Day. In these twenty-two verses of sacred Scripture, we learn that it was a grievous judgment on David to be surrounded by manipulators and to be given over to his own weakness to be manipulated by them. May the Lord spare us from the chastening of being under such authorities and especially of being such authorities ourselves!