Mon.’s Devo - Remain in the Vine

Read: 2 Samuel 9:1-11:27; John 15:1-27; Psalm 119:49-64; Proverbs 16:1-3 Jonathan and David had made a pact to take care of each other’s families if anything happened to one of them. Jonathan was dead so David searched for any living soul in Jonathan’s family. David found one of Saul’s servants, Ziba who knew of a son of Jonathan’s named Mephibosheth who was crippled in both of his feet. David sent for him and gave him all of Saul’s land and invited him to eat his meals at David’s table. Mephibosheth was deeply humbled and grateful. David told Ziba and his sons to work Saul’s land for Mephibosheth and his son, Mica and to take care of them. Mephibosheth moved to Jerusalem and ate regularly at the king’s table. *** Meanwhile, King Nahash of the Ammonites died and his son, Hanun became king. David wanted to show his respect for Nahash so he sent ambassadors to express his sympathy. Hanun’s officers came to King Nahash and accused David’s ambassadors of being spies planning to take their land from them. They took David’s men and shaved off half of their beards and cut off their robes and sent them back to David. Hanun then hired 33,000 mercinary soldiers from the Ammonites and the Arameans and challenged David to a battle. They attacked from both sides but were no match for Joab’s troops. David came out with his forces and fought till the enemy surrendered to Israel and became their subjects. *** That spring, when David was supposed to be going out to war, he stayed home. He noticed a beautiful woman from his roof top and found out she was Bathsheba who was married to Uriah, the Hittite, one of David’s great warriors. David didn’t care that she was married to someone who was faithful to him and his country; he sent for her anyway. He slept with her that night and sent her home. She later learned she was pregnant and sent word to David. *** David sent for Uriah and did everything conniving he could do to get Uriah to go home and be with his wife so Uriah would think the baby was his. God would not let David’s sin be covered up. Uriah refused to go home so David now had to resort to murder. He sent a message by Uriah, the faithful servant, to tell his officer to put him on the front of the battle so he would be killed. It worked, but God was not happy. *** Bathsheba mourned her husband’s death and then David sent for her to come and be one of his wives. *** This is such a warning for us not to get complacent in our walk with the Lord. When we are supposed to be fighting, we need to be fighting. When we stop fighting, we are vulnerable to Satan’s pitfalls. *** In John, Jesus said that his true disciples grow on his vine. God prunes them regularly so they will produce more fruit. During the pruning process we need to remain on the vine, even when we don’t understand the process. If we don’t remain on the vine, we will be thrown away as useless. If we do remain on the vine, we have the right to ask for anything we want and it will be given us. We will produce fruit and it will bring glory to God. *** Jesus told his disciples that he loved them like the Father loved him and told them to remain in this love. This is a commandment to us also. We do this by obeying God’s commandments. This should bring us overflowing joy. We are to love each other like Jesus loved us and be willing to lay down our lives for our fellow brothers and sisters. *** It is important to love each other because the world hates us and will do all it can to persecute us. We need to stand with each other. We have the Spirit of truth who testifies for the truth. If we remain in the truth, he will testify for us. *** Lord, help us to be united in love. May we obey your Word and walk in it. Help us to remain in you.