{"id":4660,"date":"2023-03-31T06:08:04","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T11:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4660"},"modified":"2023-03-31T06:08:04","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T11:08:04","slug":"devotional-on-2-samuel-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-2-samuel-27\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on 2 Samuel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-29Tr7X-d5nU\/XiUQAXflycI\/AAAAAAABDnI\/DueFJ6cm30gwpSNFB5DQ_bHi2fjsnLr5ACKgBGAsYHg\/s1600\/P8129983.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2015 -Pictured Rocks Cruise &#8211;  Munising, MI<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nHe\u2019s my friend, but&#8230;<br \/>\n2 Samuel 20: Amasa didn\u2019t notice the sword in Joab\u2019s other hand.<br \/>\nFollowing the defeat and death of Absalom David returns to Jerusalem, victorious but weakened. Soon, there\u2019s another uprising led by Sheba. David realizes that he has to act decisively if he\u2019s to hold Israel together. He shakes up his inner circle, replacing commander Joab with Amasa. The new general is given three days to rally troops to go after Sheba. Time passes and Amasa, for some reason, doesn\u2019t report in and David, feeling time is of the essence bypasses Joab again, this time naming Abishai to lead the force. Being overlooked again angers Joab and with ruthless cunning he acts to regain his position. He, and those loyal to him, joins Abishai\u2019s expedition to root out Sheba. When this group meets Amasa and the force he\u2019s rallied, Joab approaches Amasa as though he\u2019s going to warmly greet him. He then plunges a sword into him, killing him instantly. Amasa is now numbered with Abner and Absalom, all murdered by Joab. Before anyone can respond, he calls for unity in the name of David. In reality, it\u2019s all about him and his power. Joab, though faithful to David, is a ruthless person but David never deals with him. However, he tells his son Solomon that Joab has spilled much innocent blood and that because of him his legacy is stained. I can\u2019t help but wonder why David let Joab get away with it all. He\u2019s David\u2019s nephew but I doubt that has anything to do with it. I think the problem is that Joab serves David\u2019s purposes so well. He\u2019s on David\u2019s side even though his actions aren\u2019t approved of by David. We Christians would do well to study the relationship between David and Joab. Is it possible that we\u2019re too quick to overlook wrong doing by our allies? If someone who\u2019s on \u201cour side\u201d is behaving in an unethical way do we tend to look the other way? Christians are called to a high standard. That should include our reigning in or even disavowing our \u201cfriends\u201d when their behavior violates that standard.<br \/>\nTake Away: Ultimately, there\u2019s no right way to do a wrong thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He\u2019s my friend, but&#8230; 2 Samuel 20: Amasa didn\u2019t notice the sword in Joab\u2019s other hand. Following the defeat and death of Absalom David returns to Jerusalem, victorious but weakened. Soon, there\u2019s another uprising led by Sheba. David realizes that he has to act decisively if he\u2019s to hold Israel together. He shakes up his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1481,7],"tags":[118,376,624,651,741],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4660"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4660"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14370,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4660\/revisions\/14370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}