“An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
And isn't it ironic... don't you think.”

It could be described as ironic that the 1996 song by Alanis Morissette “Isn’t it Ironic” took a lot of heat for describing situations that were more coincidental than ironic. Irony is the use of words to describe things contrary to how they really are. Add “isn’t it awesome” or “that must have been tasty” or “he must have been thrilled” to the song and you have irony. Regardless the song was filled with anecdotal descriptions of situations that didn’t turn out as expected.

It isn’t ironic that life often fails to turn out as we expect, just disappointing - like David’s outreach to Judah in his return to Jerusalem (see our August 11, 2021 Morning Minutes in the Bible). His call for them to participate in his return backfired. Because they took a prominent lead in the return of the king the other ten tribes saw it as an affront to themselves. The text revealed that all the people of Judah and half the people of Israel participated in returning David to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 19:40). The half that wasn’t involved in the process took it personally and demanded to know why they weren’t invited (2 Sam 19:41). The chorus of the Alanis Morissette song starts with “It’s like rain on your wedding day”, an apt description of the dispute in Jerusalem on David’s big day.

However, the consequences for the nation of Israel were far greater than rain spoiling a wedding. This incident resurrected the division between Judah and the 10 other tribes that had existed for the first seven years of David’s reign (2 Samuel 3:1). Passions were reignited and another rebellion formed that was an even greater threat than Absalom’s (2 Samuel 20:1-6). Since Absalom was killed by Joab when his head got caught in a tree it was an interesting coincidence that the rebellion was ended when the rebel leader’s head was handed over to Joab (2 Samuel 20:22).

David’s effort to include Judah led to others feeling left out. Life may not be ironic, but it sure can be disappointing. Good intentions can backfire. People can misunderstand or even deliberately malign us. Yet we must never give up on reaching out to include when we can. And refuse to assume we were left out on purpose. Don’t hand your head to those who hate you.