Today’s Devotion
Topic: Do Your Best; God’s Got The Rest!
Text: 2 Samuel 10: 1- 6
1 In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. 2 David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father. When David’s men came to the land of the Ammonites,
3 the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think David is honouring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Hasn’t David sent them to you only to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?” 4 So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away.
5 When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.” 6 When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench in David’s nostrils, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maakah with a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob. Amen
Beloved in Christ, we all know that the uncertainty of life is not a new phenomenon. Likewise the unpredictability of man. Sometimes life hands you an ugly challenge you are not ready for. You will have to either fight for your dignity or bow your head in defeat and get wiped off the scene.
King David offered an arm of friendship and goodwill to Hanun and the latter abused it. Yet before David could decide what to do, Hanun had already gone into alliance with the Arameans, Maakah and Tob and hired 33,000 of their soldiers to help him fight against Israel.
On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the ENTIRE army of fighting men. “9 Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. 10 He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother and deployed them against the Ammonites.
11 Joab said, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to come to my rescue; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to rescue you. 12 Be strong, and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The LORD will do what is good in His sight.” 13 Then Joab and his troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and they fled before him. 14 When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans were fleeing, they too fled before Abishai and went inside the city.
Precious One, what David and Joab did is absolutely fantastic! You see, whenever the discourse of life hands you a challenge of this magnitude for no wrong done, don’t just accept defeat and allow Satan to triumph.
Drawing from the wisdom of God and the experiences in life He’s brought you through, device your best defence strategy. Then master courage and fight bravely for the course of Jehovah. After this, learn to leave the rest to God. He must always have the final say! He does what seems best in His sight!
For a “Hanun” as terrible as this, it will be catastrophic to go to battle even half prepared. Give it your all as God enables you, and leave the rest to God. You will see Hanun and his allies fleeing before you. Begin to pray therefore. Present your every challenge to God right now. Let Him have His way in this matter too. The battle is not yours but His!
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