May 13, 2014 - Tuesday

Start Time: 6:26 A.M.

End Time: 6:48 A.M.

Title: David Defeats the Ammonites

Scripture: 2 Samuel 10:1 – 19

God’s Message / God’s Promise / God’s Commands:

→In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. 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, the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think David is honoring 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?” 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.  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.” When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maakahwith a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob.

NOTES:

Ø God’s kindness has no hidden agenda!  People today question the goodness of others to them.  They feel like they receive kindness from someone because that person wants something in return.  But praise God, for our God is not like that!  His kindness is pure and His love is genuine and He has no hidden agenda for He doesn’t need anything from us.  We are the ones who need something from Him.  So don’t seek for human’s kindness, seek for God’s love and goodness for they endure forever!  Hallelujah!

Ø God will not allow His people to be shamed!  When Hanun did what he did to the soldiers of David, David made sure that his men were kept in Jericho until they have grown back whatever they lost then they can come back.  Our God doesn’t want us humiliated and even if things happened to us that will show our defeat and humiliation, God will find a way to keep us in secret and heal us so we can show our face once again without any form of embarrassment.  This is how God loves and protects us and He does this every day for us.  Thank You Lord coz in You I can be assured and protected.  My reputation and testimony is preserved for Your Name’s sake!

→On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance of their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maakah were by themselves in the open country.  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.  He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother and deployed them against the Ammonites. 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. 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.”

NOTES:

Ø God, just like Joab and his brothers, has our backs always!  When we are in battle, God does not send us to a fight without support.  The best thing is that He is our support and every time we are fighting His battle, He has our backs at all times.  This is why it is amazing to fight God’s battle and be with Him in times of war because we are assured that we have someone who will always fight with us, supporting us until we reach victory.  Thank You Lord for having my back always!

→Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and they fled before him. When the Ammonites realized that the Arameans were fleeing, they fled before Abishai and went inside the city. So Joab returned from fighting the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.  After the Arameans saw that they had been routed by Israel, they regrouped. Hadadezer had Arameans brought from beyond the Euphrates River; they went to Helam, with Shobak the commander of Hadadezer’s army leading them. When David was told of this, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan and went to Helam. The Arameans formed their battle lines to meet David and fought against him. But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers.^[a] He also struck down Shobak the commander of their army, and he died there. When all the kings who were vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with the Israelites and became subject to them. So the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.

NOTES:

Ø God will only give two choices to our enemies, death or peace with us!  When God is with us, who can be against us?  This is clearly what this story is about.  Despite of David’s kindness, it was misinterpreted and then the Ammonites became an enemy of David but God did not allow them to remain an enemy because no can really be against us when God is with us.  So our enemies will only have to choose their own death or to humble down and be at peace with us!  Hallelujah!  I don’t want to be an enemy of a child of God because in the end, I will just be in the losing end and I’ll just humble myself down to that person so why bother being his/her enemy when I can be a friend?

Prayer:

Lord Jesus Thank You for showing me that with You by my side, I don’t have any reason to worry at all because even my enemies will soon either die or be at peace with me.  Thank You Lord because You preserve my reputation and testimony for Your Name’s sake so I can be assured that I will not be in a humiliating situation and if I were, You will find a way to keep me from the public eye until I am healed again.  Thank You Lord because Your goodness and kindness to me has no hidden agenda unlike what humans’ have.  Help me Lord to have pure intentions and desires as well.  So I may not be clouded with wrong motives when I show kindness to others.  Let me portray Your love to others Lord.  Thank You, because You always have my back in every fight and I can be assured that I have all the support I need when I fight my battles because You are with me.  Thank You Lord for everything.  I Love You.  In Jesus’ name, Amen!