Sat.’s Devo - God’s Kings

Read: 2 Samuel 15:23-16:23; John 18:25-19:22; Psalm 119:113-128; Proverbs 16:10-11 The people of Israel cried as they watched David and his people leaving Jerusalem. Abiathar and the priests came with the ark of the covenant. Once outside the city, David sent the priests back with the ark to the city. He asked them to be spies for him. *** David went up the Mount of Olives weeping as he went. I wonder if Jesus thought of this when he went to the Mount of Olives to pray for the people he would be leaving. David was rejected from Jerusalem, just like Jesus would be many years later. *** David learned that Ahithophel, one of his advisors had conspired with Absalom. Hushai was David’s most trusted advisor. Hushai was old and would slow David down, so he told him he would be more help if he would go back and pretend to serve Absalom. He sent him back to the city to be another spy for him. He was to give his information to Abiathar’s sons who would get the information to him. Hushai made it back just as Absalom was entering the city. *** Ziba also came to meet David and his men. He brought donkeys for them to ride, 200 loaves of bread, raisins, fruit and a skin of wine. When David asked about Mephibosheth, he told him that he said, “Today the house of Israel will give me back the kingdom of my father.” David then gave all that belonged to Mephibosheth to Ziba. We never learn if Ziba was telling the truth or not. *** At Bahurim, a man named Shimei came cursing David and his men and throwing stones at them. Abishai wanted to kill the man but David wouldn’t allow him to. He would let God punish him if he was in the wrong. *** Absalom met with the people of Israel. Ahithophel was with him. When he saw Hushai, he questioned his loyalty, but Hushai told him he would serve him like he did his father. Absalom believed him and asked him for advice. Ahithophel told Absalom to go in to his father’s concubines for all Israel to see so they would know just what he thought of his father. (This would reveal his heart to the people and they could judge him.) He did, and this fulfilled God’s word over David that one in his own house would have his wives. *** In John, we see the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders. They wouldn’t enter the governor’s headquarters because it would defile them and they wouldn’t be allowed to eat the Passover. But they had no problem defiling themselves by conspiring to murder God’s innocent Passover lamb. *** When Pilate asked the Jewish leaders what crime Jesus had committed, they didn’t give him a direct answer. They said that if he wasn’t doing something wrong they wouldn’t have brought him to be judged. That is not an answer and Pilate knew they were trying to play him. He refused to be used and turned Jesus over to them to judge him themselves. But, they explained that they could’t do that because their laws didn’t allow crucifixion and they wanted Jesus crucified. *** Pilate took Jesus into a room and asked Jesus what he had done. Jesus didn’t answer him. Jesus told him that his kingdom was not of this world or his servants would have fought to keep him from being turned over to the Jews. Pilate then asked him if he was a king. Jesus told him that he, Pilate would call him a king, but he was brought into the world to be a witness of the truth. Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” *** Pilate returned to the people and told them that he didn’t find anything Jesus guilty of anything. He wanted to know if they wanted him to release Jesus or Barabbas who was a known resurrectionist and a robber. They chose Barabbas. *** Pilate then had Jesus flogged and his soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and placed it on his head. They mocked him as the king of the Jews. Pilate brought Jesus out and told them again that he found no guilt in him. The chief priests yelled that they wanted Jesus crucified. Pilate told them to crucify him themselves, because he found him innocent. The Jews said that their law said he had to die because he had claimed he was the Son of God. This frightened Pilate even more. *** Pilate went back to Jesus and asked him where he came from, but Jesus wouldn’t answer him. Pilate got mad and told him that he had the authority to release or crucify him. Jesus told him that he didn’t have the authority to do anything God didn’t let him do. The ones who delivered him over to die had the greater sin. *** Pilate was really afraid now, and looked for any way he could get out of killing Jesus just in case what he said was the truth. The Jews pulled the ‘Caesar card’ and got what they wanted. Pilate finally ordered Jesus to be crucified. *** Jesus bore his own cross and they led him to the Place of a Skull which is Golgotha. He was crucified between two other men. Pilate had a sign written which said ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’ He had it written in Aramaic, Latin, and in Greek. They would all bear witness to the sin of the Jews for crucifying Jesus. When the priests wanted to change the sign to read, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews,’ Pilate refused to change it. *** The lives of David and Jesus were so similar. They were both kings, betrayed by their own family. They bore the shame of other’s sins and guilt. They both took it with humility and courage. And, they were both rewarded afterward with their rightful place of honor. *** Lord, thank you for the humiliation, pain, suffering and shame that you bore in our place. Thank you that we have peace with God because of what you did for us on the cross. May we never forget your great love for us and freely live our lives for you.