Good morning!
Text: 2 Samuel 14-17; Psalm 74
In the wake of Absalom’s rebellion against his father, David, there is a deep rift between the two. Joab arranges for a woman to approach David and make a veiled appeal. Her words include these:
We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God will not take away life, and he devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast. (2 Samuel 14:14).
What a beautiful picture of God’s redemptive plan. We all die, yet God “devises means” to bring us back to Him. This is what Jesus accomplished at the cross when His blood paid for our sins. Jesus made it possible that we might not remain outcasts but rather be welcomed into God’s very household.
Another perspective here is how Joab cleverly crafts a means to penetrate into David’s heart. David knows what is right and is a man after God’s own heart. But, the matter is so close to home – Absalom is his son after all – that David needs an appeal that sneaks up on him. What Joab and the woman do is not unlike the way Nathan approaches David with a parable after David’s sin with Bathsheba and against Uriah. Sometimes the best way to reach someone is through the side door. Do we think like this when it comes to how we approach those close to us about the Gospel?
in Him, Mike