8/24/2010
4:41:32 AM
SPIRITUAL
DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Abner
calls for a truce
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
2Samuel 2:25-32
Message
of the verses: “25 ¶ The sons of Benjamin gathered together behind
Abner and became one band, and they stood on the top of a certain hill. 26 Then Abner called to Joab and said,
"Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that it will be bitter in
the end? How long will you refrain from telling the people to turn back from
following their brothers?" 27 Joab
said, "As God lives, if you had not spoken, surely then the people would
have gone away in the morning, each from following his brother." 28 So Joab blew the trumpet; and all the people
halted and pursued Israel no longer, nor did they continue to fight anymore.
29 Abner and his men then went through
the Arabah all that night; so they crossed the Jordan, walked all morning, and
came to Mahanaim. 30 Then Joab returned
from following Abner; when he had gathered all the people together, nineteen of
David’s servants besides Asahel were missing. 31 But the servants of David had struck down
many of Benjamin and Abner’s men, so that three hundred and sixty men died.
32 And they took up Asahel and buried
him in his father’s tomb which was in Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men went all
night until the day dawned at Hebron.”
It is clear to me that the Lord was
working things out in order to bring David to the throne of Israel and nothing
Abner could do would stop this plan of God.
Abner was scheming in order to get both armies under his control, but
this backfired on him as his army was soundly defeated by Joab and David’s
army.
Abner knew he was defeated and this
may have been the reason that he killed Asahel so that Joab and Abishai would
want to stop the battle and attend to the burial of their brother. Abner was the one who started this battle and
now he is the one who called for this truce and so the battle ended with Abner
loosing 360 men while Joab only lost twenty men. The scheming Abner’s plan did not work out
the way he wanted it to as he forgot that God had called David to become the
next king over all of Israel.
Dr. Wiersbe points out that on that
long walk back to Hebron that Abishai and Joab were planning how they would
kill Abner and this would be a disappointment to David as he did not want to
see bloodshed between the sons of Israel.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am not
sure what the Lord is doing at GBC, but I realize that I do not want to be
doing any scheming to get my will accomplished, when it is God’s will that will
be accomplished. I see scheming in the
passage above and it did not work out the way the schemer wanted it to work out
because the Lord had other plans that would not be stopped by this
schemer.
My plan was to hope for the job to
come in from Hawaii and for us to leave for the job and not return to GBC
unless the problems that this leadership started were ended, however I am convicted
that this is scheming and therefore I believe that the best thing to do is to
take my membership out of GBC and see if the Lord wants us at FBC to serve him
there.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Be protected by the spiritual armor, the belt
of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace,
the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit along
with prayer.
2. Trust the Lord to guide my path
today.
3. Give myself to the Lord for
worship and service.
4. Trust the Holy Spirit to search
my heart for unconfessed sin that I may confess them and have fellowship with
my Lord.
5. Continue to learn contentment as
I go through these tough times.
8/24/2010
5:13:58 AM
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