Wed.’s Devo - Remain in Him

Read: 2 Samuel 9:1-11:27; John 15:1-27; Psalm 119:49-64; Proverbs 16:1-3 Jonathan had made David swear to take care of his family when he was gone. David wanted to honor Jonathan, so he inquired if there was anyone left in Jonathan’s family. He learned of a surviving son named Mephibosheth. He was the child that had been dropped fleeing the palace. He was left crippled in both of his feet. David sent for Mephibosheth and gave him all of the property that belonged to Saul and invited him to eat at David’s table. Mephibosheth was had a young son named Mica who also lived with him. David put Ziba, one of Saul’s slaves, in charge of Mephibosheth’s land to farm it for him. The king of the Ammonites, King Nahash died. Nahash had been loyal to David so he sent some of his men to pay his respect to Nahash’s son, Hanun. Hanun’s men were suspicious of David’s men and told Hanun that they had come to scout out his land so they could attack later. Hanun ordered his men to shave their beards and cut their robes to the top of their legs. David’s men were so ashamed of their looks that David told them to stay in Jericho till their beards grew back. King Hanun realized how angry he had made David, so he hired 33,000 men from neighboring countries to fight David. They positioned themselves in front and in back of the city. Joab took his elite soldiers to fight the ones in the back and his brother, Abishai took the rest of the soldiers and fought the ones in front. The soldiers of both sides ran from Joab’s armies and regrouped. Hadadezer, the leader of the Aramean came with additional troops and joined them. David took his army and went out to meet them and once again the Aramean’s fled. David’s troops killed 40,700 of the Arameans including their commander, Shobach. His name means “thy turning back.” After that, they surrendered to Israel and became their subjects. They never helped the Ammonites again. In the Spring when David should have been out fighting, he stayed home. He was on his balcony where he saw a woman bathing. He wanted her, so he sent for her. She was married to one of his elite warriors, Uriah. Bathsheba and David had an affair which left her pregnant. David wanted to cover his sin, so he had Uriah brought home from war hoping he would sleep with his wife and think that the baby was his. Problem solved! Only, it didn’t go as planned. God would not let him get away with his sin. No matter what David did to get Uriah to go home and be with Bathsheba, he wouldn’t go. Finally David wrote Uriah’s death sentence in an order and sent it by Uriah to his officer. The officer was to put Uriah on the front line and then pull his men back so Uriah would be out there unprotected. Murder worked for David and Uriah was killed. Bathsheba mourned for her husband and David brought her to the palace to be his wife. Once again… problem solved, so he thought. God was not pleased. In John, Jesus used the example of a vine to give us three choices: remain in Him, get pruned or get cut completely off from Him. He admonished us to remain in Him. If we do then we will produce much fruit. Also, if we remain in Him and his words remain in us then we can ask for anything and he will give it to us. Jesus explained how much he loves us and the fact that he chose us to be his friends. He also explained why the world doesn’t love us, but instead hates us. They hated Jesus making them an enemy of God. He gave them every proof of who he was and they still rejected him, fulfilling Psalms 35:19 and 69:4 which both say, “they hated me without a cause.” Once again, Jesus promised them another Advocate called the Holy Spirit who would testify of Jesus. Lord, thank you for your faithfulness to every promise you have given.