April 15

David can’t seem to go too long without some sort of fight. Today’s reading was another fight internally devised. Because there was already some sort of division within Israel, Sheba pounced on the opportunity to exalt himself. How long will it take for people to learn that if God doesn’t exalt you, you are in trouble?

The thing that stood out for me was the intercessor of Abel Beth Maacah. It was her intercession that brought about the deliverance of a city. Did you get that? There are 2 things here for me. #1 is that intercessors can deliver a city – plain and simple. #2 is that the deliverance only came through someone losing there “head”, which in this case Sheba, who was hiding in the city, running from God, exalting himself as leader in his own pride, had to lose his head for the city to be delivered. My lesson is that the “head” that is self exalted must roll. It must be cut off and delivered up for my own deliverance. There are plenty of applications for this, in churches and organizations and in governments, but the application for me is in my own life. If there is anything self-exalted in me, it must be cut off and thrown down. There is no way around the violent action of death. Jesus said to carry our cross daily – the symbol of death. Whatever in me that exalts itself above the will of my Father, must die!