Daily Devotionals

Devotional: April 30th

2 Samuel 18:19-33

In the preceding chapter Ahimaaz had run in obedience and his service had been effective. Here his own will asserts itself: "Let me run", he insists (v. 23). In consequence his efforts are in vain, leading even to deceit. The same applies not only to our good legs, if we have such, but to all our faculties; either they are useful or they are not, according to whether we are or are not obedient to the Lord Jesus.

David’s heart is not gladdened by the victory that has just been won. Of what importance to him is the throne, or yet his own life? Absalom is dead, and the painful news pierces the poor father’s heart, as he feels his share of responsibility in the events that have just taken place. "Absalom, my son, my son!" There we have one of the most terrible cries of all Scripture, enough to make any Christian parent shudder – a cry without an echo, without hope, which expresses the awful certainty of final and eternal separation. Quite different was the death of Bathsheba’s little child! David, instead of grieving, had then been able to state with the conviction of meeting at the resurrection, "I shall go to him . . ." (2 Samuel 12:23). But for Absalom, as for Judas, it would have been better had he not been born (Matthew 26:24).

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