Sat.’s Devo - Satan is Defeated!

Read: 2 Samuel 18:1-19:10; John 20:1-31; Psalm 119:153-176; Proverbs 16:14-15 David divided his army into three parts and put his trusted commanders in charge of them. He announced that he was going to join them in the battle but they convinced him to stay safe. If they killed David, the battle was over. *** Absalom had been advised by Ahithophel to do the same but had followed Hushai’s advice and went to battle, himself. *** David commanded his officers to bring Absalom to him, alive. Twenty thousand of Absalom’s men were killed the first day. The next day, Absalom was running from one of David’s men when he got his hair caught in the branches of a tree. The man told Joab about it. Joab scolded him for not killing him but the soldier had heard what David said and couldn’t be bought. Joab went and drove three daggers into Absalom’s heart and Joab’s men finished him off. *** Joab blew the ram’s horn and the battle was over. They threw Absalom’s body into a deep pit and piled stones over it. All Israel fled to their homes. *** Absalom had built a monument to himself in the King’s Valley to honor himself, so people wouldn’t forget him since he had no heirs. *** Two runners went to tell David the news. Ahimahaz had begged to be a runner because he wanted to prepare David for the next runner who would tell him the sad news about Absalom. *** David was very sad, his army began to feel guilty for fighting for him. Joab went in and told David that if he didn’t go and congratulate his army, he would have no one left to follow him. He finally did go meet the people. The nation was in a state of upheaval as to what they were going to do and who they were going to follow, now that Absalom was dead. *** In John, Mary and the women who followed Jesus went to the tomb early the day after the Sabbath. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb and the tomb empty. They ran to tell Peter and John. *** Peter and John ran to the tomb and saw the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head folded up and lying apart from the rest of the body. They then understood what the Scriptures had meant when it said, he must rise from the dead. They left and went home. *** Mary stayed. She looked into the tomb and saw two angels. They asked her what she was looking for. She told them someone had taken Jesus’ body. *** Mary saw a person standing near her and asked him where they had put Jesus. The man called her by name and she recognized the man to be Jesus. She went to hug him but he told her not to touch him because he hadn’t ascended to the Father yet. He told her to go get his followers. She ran to tell them. The next Sabbath evening, the disciples were all meeting behind locked doors for safety. Suddenly, Jesus appeared to them and showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. He breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. They now had the power to forgive sins. *** Thomas had not been there when Jesus appeared to them so he said he wouldn’t believe unless he could see the wounds in his hands like they had. Jesus appeared to him and gave him that opportunity and the invitation to believe. *** Lord, we are blessed because we believe even though we haven’t seen. May our faith be evident in the way we live our lives.