Day4
Week7
2 Samuel
”David answered Rekab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As the Lord, who has delivered my life from every distress, lives, when one reported to me that Saul was dead, although he was a bearer of good news in his own eyes, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag, which was my reward for his message. How much more so, when guilty men have slain an innocent man in his own house on his own bed, should I not now require his blood from your hand and wipe you from the earth?” David then gave orders to the young men. They killed them, cut off their hands and feet, and hung them at the pool in Hebron, but they took the head of Ish-Bosheth and buried it in the grave of Abner at Hebron.“
2 Samuel 4:9-12 MEV
Cross references
1 Kings 1:29;
Genesis 48:16;
2 Samuel 1:2-16;
Psalm 9:12;
Genesis 9:5-6;
2 Samuel 1:15; 3:32
Mafia Methods
Are we reading The Godfather or The Word of God?
Cutting off hands and feet and hanging them for public viewing is not exactly pleasant to think about, right?
Those are Mafia methods. Solomon wrote that there is nothing new under the sun and the older I get, the more I am finding his words to be true.
The death penalty is not popular in our culture, but it was ordained by God clear back in Genesis 9.
Have you ever manipulated circumstances to your advantage only to have it backfire?
David was once again trying to teach the people that they need to trust God and stop relying on their own wisdom.
His Mafia methods are a bit shocking for us, but the lesson is still the same.
It is better to keep our hands and feet busy for God’s purpose and let Him work out everything else.
Action Step
Do you find it hard to control your hands and feet?
Maybe your mouth?
”Who among you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature?“
Matthew 6:27 MEV
If we can’t add to our own, then how do we think we can meddle in others?
What sort of thoughts are you allowing to take up space in your mind?
Make a list of concerns you have for others that you may have been meddling in.
Talk to God about what’s on that list.