{"id":33560,"date":"2024-11-29T22:00:40","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T05:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2-samuel_2_1-11-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-11-12T15:46:45","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T22:46:45","slug":"2-samuel_2_12-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2-samuel_2_12-32\/","title":{"rendered":"Have the Wisdom to Call a Truce"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Samuel 2:12-32\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Samuel 2:12-32.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

2 Samuel 2:12-32 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Abner son of Ner, together with the men of Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, left Mahanaim and went to Gibeon.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Joab son of Zeruiah and David’s men went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. One group sat down on one side of the pool and one group on the other side.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Abner said to Joab, “Let’s have some of the young men get up and fight hand to hand in front of us.” “All right, let them do it,” Joab said.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So they stood up and were counted off–twelve men for Benjamin and Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, and twelve for David.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then each man grabbed his opponent by the head and thrust his dagger into his opponent’s side, and they fell down together. So that place in Gibeon was called Helkath Hazzurim.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The battle that day was very fierce, and Abner and the men of Israel were defeated by David’s men.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The three sons of Zeruiah were there: Joab, Abishai and Asahel. Now Asahel was as fleet-footed as a wild gazelle.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He chased Abner, turning neither to the right nor to the left as he pursued him.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Abner looked behind him and asked, “Is that you, Asahel?” “It is,” he answered.
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Abner said to him, “Turn aside to the right or to the left; take on one of the young men and strip him of his weapons.” But Asahel would not stop chasing him.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Again Abner warned Asahel, “Stop chasing me! Why should I strike you down? How could I look your brother Joab in the face?”
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But Asahel refused to give up the pursuit; so Abner thrust the butt of his spear into Asahel’s stomach, and the spear came out through his back. He fell there and died on the spot. And every man stopped when he came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died.
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner, and as the sun was setting, they came to the hill of Ammah, near Giah on the way to the wasteland of Gibeon.
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the men of Benjamin rallied behind Abner. They formed themselves into a group and took their stand on top of a hill.
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will end in bitterness? How long before you order your men to stop pursuing their brothers?”
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Joab answered, “As surely as God lives, if you had not spoken, the men would have continued the pursuit of their brothers until morning.”
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the men came to a halt; they no longer pursued Israel, nor did they fight anymore.
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0All that night Abner and his men marched through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, continued through the whole Bithron and came to Mahanaim.
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Joab returned from pursuing Abner and assembled all his men. Besides Asahel, nineteen of David’s men were found missing.
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But David’s men had killed three hundred and sixty Benjamites who were with Abner.
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They took Asahel and buried him in his father’s tomb at Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men marched all night and arrived at Hebron by daybreak.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a012-32: \u00a0Here we see a showdown between David’s men led by Joab and Ish-Bosheth’s men led by Abner.\u00a0 After a dramatic and bloody standoff between 24 men at the Pool of Gibeon (v13-16), Joab’s side ends up fighting and defeating Abner’s side (v17).\u00a0 Abner’s side lost 360 men (v31) while Joab’s side lost only 20 soldiers (v30).<\/p>\n

Among all the men that died in battle that day, the most noteworthy was Joab’s brother Asahel.\u00a0 Verse 18 says that Asahel was fast (“fleet-footed as a wild gazelle”). \u00a0 Asahel decided to chase down the older, more experienced Abner and kill him.\u00a0 Abner kept warning Asahel for his own good to stop chasing him or else Asahel would be struck down.\u00a0 Asahel refused (v19-23).\u00a0 So Abner thrust the blunt, less dangerous part of his spear into Asahel’s stomach — probably to inflict as little damage as he could on Asahel — but it came out through Asahel’s back, killing Asahel instantly (v23).\u00a0 Because Asahel refused to accept Abner’s offer for a truce and insisted on fighting, it was his own life that was cut short.<\/p>\n

The fighting continues until finally Abner recommends that both sides call a truce.\u00a0 Joab agrees, and both sides do the long march back to their own respective camps (v24-29).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from all this?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 If you’re going into a battlefield (whether it’s the industry in which you work, or the environment where you do study or do business, or the place where God has called you to serve), you need to\u00a0be tough and thick-skinned<\/strong>.\u00a0 Asahel was bent on killing Abner, but Asahel’s own skin couldn’t take it when Abner hit him with the least threatening part of his spear. \u00a0 As a friend of mine used to say, Asahel was “ready to dish it out on others, but couldn’t take it himself.” \u00a0Let’s learn from Asahel’s mistake. \u00a0Don’t be oversensitive and easily hurt.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Otherwise, even the most blunt and gentle attacks — things that people say to help you and make you stronger — will end up being your downfall.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0While zeal is important, you also need wisdom.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Asahel was very zealous in chasing his goal, but he refused to heed the repeated warnings of someone older and more experienced than him.\u00a0 Thus he failed to reach his goal and was defeated.\u00a0 As Proverbs 19:2\u00a0says, “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” \u00a0\u00a0Have the wisdom to listen to those who are older and more experienced than you are.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Have you ever been in an argument that seemed to just go on and on to no end?<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Both sides seem to have unlimited ammo to fire at one another.\u00a0 They keep finding more places to attack, more things to complain about and more points to bring up.\u00a0 The fighting does not end until one side suggests, and the other side agrees, to stop fighting, realizing that no one is going to win in the end.<\/p>\n

As Abner learned,\u00a0sometimes the best thing you can do is call a truce.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Yes, there will be times when you definitely need to fight; that is, to talk things out and resolve things.\u00a0 But sometimes the best thing to do is to simply call a truce and stop fighting so that both sides can just move on to more important things.<\/p>\n

Holy Spirit, I pray I would not be oversensitive, but that I would be tough and thick skinned when I’m in the battlefield.\u00a0 I pray for the wisdom to know when to fight, when to embrace, and when to call a truce.\u00a0 As I chase after the calling you have on my life, may I do so not just with great zeal but also with great wisdom.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Samuel 2:12-32.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

2 Samuel 2:12-32 (NIV)
\n12\u00a0\u00a0Abner son of Ner, together with the men of Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, left Mahanaim and went to Gibeon.
\n13\u00a0\u00a0Joab son of Zeruiah and David’s men went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. One group sat down on one side of the pool and one group on the other side.
\n14\u00a0\u00a0Then Abner said to Joab, “Let’s have some of the young men get up and fight hand to hand in front of us.” “All right, let them do it,” Joab said.
\n15\u00a0\u00a0So they stood up and were counted off–twelve men for Benjamin and Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, and twelve for David.<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a012-32: \u00a0Here we see a showdown between David’s men led by Joab and Ish-Bosheth’s men led by Abner.\u00a0 After a dramatic and bloody standoff between 24 men at the Pool of Gibeon (v13-16), Joab’s side ends up fighting and defeating Abner’s side (v17).\u00a0 Abner’s side lost 360 men (v31) while Joab’s side lost only 20 soldiers (v30).<\/p>\n

Among all the men that died in battle that day, the most noteworthy was Joab’s brother Asahel.\u00a0 Verse 18 says that Asahel was fast (“fleet-footed as a wild gazelle”). \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33560"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33563,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33560\/revisions\/33563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}