Fri.’s Devo - The Blessing and the Curse

Read: 2 Samuel 9:1-11:27; John 15:1-27; Psalm 119:49-64; Proverbs 16:1-3
David wanted to do something for Jonathan because he had been his closer-than-a-brother friend so he investigated and found Mephibosheth. He was the crippled son of Jonathan who was being cared for by Ziba, one of Saul’s servants. Mephibosheth had one son where Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. David met with Mephibosheth and told him he wanted to give him back all the land that had belonged to his father, Saul and that he would eat at his table always. Ziba was put in charge of keeping the land and harvesting its fruits for Mephibosheth.
David wanted to thank everyone who was kind to him in his long journey to the throne and King Nahash the Ammonite was one of them. He died and his son Hanun was now the king. David sent some of his servants to give him his condolences. Instead of accepting David’s comfort through his servants, Hanun didn’t trust their loyalty and thought they were spies so he shaved them and sent them home half-naked. They returned in shame.
David was greatly offended so he planned revenge on the Ammonites. The Ammonites hired 33,000 Syrians to fight David’s men. David had the Lord on his side so, of course, he won. They made peace with Israel and served them.
Both Mephibosheth and Hanun had reason to fear David, yet Mephibosheth accepted David’s grace and Hanun rejected it. They represent the two types of people in the earth. We all deserve death by the king, God, but he extends mercy and grace to all. Those who accept it receive great blessings and fellowship with God. Those who reject it end up serving God anyway as a slave. I’ll discuss David and Bathsheba tomorrow.
In John, Jesus was given his disciples an analogy. The blessing of Israel was represented by the grape and the olive vineyards. In Psalm 128:3, David prays for those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways. He prays that their wives would be as a fruitful vine and their children like olive plants around the table. So Jesus uses these themes also to speak of himself. He is the source of all Israel and the whole earth. God is the one who watches over it and keeps it. We are all branches of that vine and it is the job of the husbandman to prune the vine to be sure it will produce fruit. The only way we will be productive branches is to keep clean of decay and disease through the cleansing of the Word. We have to abide in the Word and let his Word live in us. If we practice what we read we will find ourselves doing what it says. We will become it. We will love others as Jesus loves us. He who laid down his life for us will help us to do the same for others.