Year 4, Day 335: 2 Samuel 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

I really have a fair amount of respect for David in this chapter.  I’m not saying that David does everything perfectly in this chapter, either.  But look at what happens in this chapter.  David’s kingdom is usurped by his own son.  Absalom comes out to fight – looking for David’s head, even!  Yet David makes the request of a loving father that Absalom be treated with gentleness.

Then the actual war breaks out.  David finds out that Absalom has been slain.  Instead of David being angry that his request wasn’t followed, David simply mourns.  He doesn’t yell at Joab.  He just mourns.  Like a loving father who is heartbroken that his family is suffering from so much dysfunction, he just mourns.

So why Can David do this?  Why can David love a rebellious son?  How can David mourn his son’s death without being ugly to the man who killed him?  David’s Up is in the right position.  David is focused upon God.  Because David is focused on God and God’s ways instead of his own desire for his own life, David is able to mourn without lashing out at the people around him.  Because David is focused on God’s will, he can even look past his own son’s rebellion.  It is amazing what people can live through when their Up is focused on God and not anything else.

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