Abishai and Joab

or, Family Characteristics as seen in Scripture
by P. Fournier
A brother once told me that, while filling out papers to support his claim to being a conscientious objector for the military, he came across this statement: "Your beliefs must influence your life." How striking that the world should recognize that what we believe should make a difference in how we behave! We will look, with the Lord's help, at two brothers in Scripture who may show us, in type, what it is to submit what we are by nature to our blessed Lord.
As we look at the story of Abishai and Joab, we see that the men were of similar temperament. They were both courageous, fearless, but hot-tempered men. In the former, however, we see how his apparent love for David often kept him from doing what he would naturally have done. In the case of the latter, we see that almost without exception, he did what his natural tendencies directed him to do.