Fridays with David

2 Samuel 14:13-16

¹³ So the woman said: “Why then have you schemed such a thing against the people of God? For the king speaks this thing as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring his banished one home again. ¹⁴ For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him. ¹⁵ Now therefore, I have come to speak of this thing to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. And your maidservant said, ‘I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his maidservant. ¹⁶ For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the inheritance of God.’

Here, the woman of Tekoa brings the point of her parable to King David. She’s not telling him about her two sons, but the story is about his! This shocking revelation forces David to face the battle that’s been fought within his own family, and the woman’s words demand action the king has been hesitant to take. Truth is, that hesitancy has already proved costly to the people of Israel, and the battle ahead will be even more costly.

To whom do you listen?  We all have a desire to be independent—to choose our own path and do things our own way—but, who can penetrate that sense of individualism in your life? The woman in this story risks her life in this conversation as David could have had her put to death for speaking to him in such a manner. Our response can’t reach that extreme, but that doesn’t mean people feel they can fearlessly approach us about our failures.

We need friends who love us enough to speak into our errors in judgment and action. We need the correction someone with a different perspective can bring. Today, consider who those people are in your life, and what steps you can take to open the way for others to bring that wisdom to your life.

– Dr. Mike Clarensau serves as Senior Director of the Healthy Church Network of the Assemblies of God.