[Thursday's Devotional] - Everything is politics, but politics isn't everything

 

I had to read this section of Samuel twice to get my head around it.  All of the unusual names don't help.  I teach children with some unusual names - and some even more unusual spellings, but some of these really take the biscuit.  In a nut shell, David has been made king of the area around Jerusalem and to the south, Ish-bosheth, Sauls's son, has the northern area which includes the Jordan valley and Galilee.  There is continued tension between the two kingdoms, a fierce rivalry and military skirmishes.

 

There is intrigue.  Abner seems keen to join David after the accusation made against him by Ish-bosheth, of sleeping with one of Saul's  concubines.  This  is seemingly enough to make him want to change sides.  Was it that?  Or did Abner see which way things were likely to go and decide to get onto the winning side?  Who knows? The point is that there is another force at work here.  It is God.  God had promised David the throne of Israel and David is going to have it.  God never said that David would be handed the throne over night.  It took years and that is sometimes the way things work out in God's timing.

 

There was a worship song that was popular a few years ago.  I think it was called 'He lives'. It included the lyric "Into our hands he will give the land we claim."  Well he will, but it might take forty years to receive it as the Israelites found out in the wilderness. The point is that David is going to be King of Israel.  The Lord of History has declared it and it is going to come to pass.

 

Remember this next time you doubt that there is a point to your existence.  David must have felt that his chances of becoming King of Israel were not great when he considered the size of his small kingdom and the size of Ish-bosheth's Israel.  But God had a plan, and despite the situation and all the politics and rivalry and intrigue that could lead to all kinds of outcomes, the simple fact is that David is going to be King, because God has said so.

 

John Martin-Jones

 

Read the Bible in a year: Psalm 69:1-12, 2 Samuel 2:8-3:21, John 21:1-25