2 Samuel 4:9

2 Samuel 4:9 says, And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said unto them, As the LORD liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity,   David began to speak to Rechab and Baanah under the authority of God, or at least swearing by His name and citing Him as his authority.   I really am not sure that we should ever swear by God to justify what we have done or about to do without first praying about it.  God may have revealed to David what to do, but we are not told this.  Verse ten adds, When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings:  What David told them was probably not what they wanted to hear.  He said that when one brought him news about Saul’s death, claiming to have mercifully killed him and expecting a reward, that David took hold of him instead.  People may still expect us to reward them for doing something that they believe will benefit us, whether it is God's will that it be done or not.  Verse eleven adds, How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?  David said if he had taken hold of, or killed, the person bringing him news about Saul’s death and his involvement in it, how much more should he demand their blood, or death, for killing Ishbosheth.  David called Ishbosheth a righteous man whom they killed while he was in his bed.  Whether or not Ishbosheth was righteous, he had been anointed king of Israel, so he certainly didn't deserve to die the way he did.  If we destroy someone that we pronounce an enemy of God looking for personal reward, we had best first make sure that we are doing what God wants us to do.  Verse twelve concludes, And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron.  David had his troops kill these two, cut off their hands and feet, and put their bodies on public display.  Though this would certainly tend to keep others from acting on their own to do something that they thought would please David and get themselves some sort of reward,  I don't believe that we should make a public display of those who may have died in the battle against evil today.  If they die in self-righteousness and without accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, we have failed in our calling to reach them for God and we should be saddened instead of rejoicing or celebrating.  David had the head of Ishbosheth buried in the tomb of Abner in Hebron.  Abner and Ishbosheth may have opposed David in life, but he honored them in death.  At times, we may have other Christians oppose us in life, and these were all a part of God's Chosen People, but that doesn't mean that we are to want their death, and we should never dishonor them when they die.  I personally believe this would have included Rechab and Baanah.  Of course, times were much different then, but God was and is the same.