To Encourage You

2 Samuel 14:20 “In order to change the course of things your servant Joab did this. But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God to know all things that are on the earth.”

Why do you pray? What is your objective in all of it? God has opened access to His holy throne (Hebrews 4:16), so what do you do with this holy privilege?  

In 2 Samuel 13-14 we see some examples of those who went to a king to seek one thing or another. In this case the king was King David, and the petitioners were his sons and subjects. First there was his son Amnon.  In 2 Samuel 13 he approaches David with a devious request. He pretends he is sick and asks that his beautiful half-sister Tamar be sent to him with some food. So why does he do this?  It was a motive of lust. It was so he could rape her when they were alone. 

Then there was Absalom, Tamar’s brother and another of David’s sons. In this case Absalom invites David and his sons to a feast. And why did he do this? To lure Amnon into a situation in which he would let his guard down so Absalom’s servants could put him to death. His motive for approaching David was so he could carry out his plot of murder and revenge. 

Next, we have an unnamed servant who fled to David with the news that all his sons had been killed. It was a report made in error. The motive?  Fear and dread.

Then there is Jonadab, one of David’s nephews. He was known as a “very crafty man” (2 Samuel 13:3).  He informs David that not all of his sons had been killed, only Amnon.  At its heart it was all a coverup, as Jonadab had been the one who had started the whole evil cascade at the beginning by advising Amnon on how to commit his gross sin against Tamar.   

And then we have Joab, the captain of David’s army, who sent a “wise woman” to David with an elaborate story to solicit David to return Absalom from his self-imposed exile. As the verse above states, Joab wanted “to change the course of things.” David finally saw through it all, which caused the woman to remark that David had “wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God to know all things that are on the earth.” What an obvious exaggeration this was, for if David had really known what Amnon, Absalom, and Jonadab had been up to when they had come to him, the “course of things” would have been very different from the start. 

So, what does this say to you and me?  Is there a lesson for us in this strange course of events?  Perhaps there’s a lesson about how we should solicit the King of kings, if we, like the people above, do so to change the course of things.  Like those in 2 Samuel 13 and 14, we have been given access to a very great King.  In fact, He’s told us to pray to Him about everything (Philippians 4:6) and to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). He’s told us to “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). So, what do we do with all this? For what types of needs do we go to Him, since we have such an awesome privilege? 

Well, we are told in one place that many go to Him for all the wrong things.  Like those who approached David, we have been told “you ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3). You see, unlike David, Jesus told us that “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8), i.e., He knows exactly what we REALLY need.  Graciously, then, because He knows us and loves us, often He will not give us those things that we want or THINK we need.  He won’t answer prayers that will lead us to feed our ungodly passions and bring destruction to our own lives and the lives of others.  If we go in such ways, it’s because we’re going it alone or we’re following the guidance of an enemy of God.  Because we truly do have a King that “knows all things that are on the earth,” we should seek to know His mind, above all else, and to seek the “wisdom that is from above” (James 3:17).  Unlike David, our King knows the absolute truth about us when we go to Him.  He sees right through our motives, for our Lord sees the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).  And so, we should constantly seek to know and do the will of our all-wise King. It’s called “seek(ing) the things that are above . . . (and) set(ting) (our) minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” in Colossians 3:1-2. Colossians 3 goes on to elaborate on this in the following words: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practicesand have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. . . Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

May God help us in our privileged position to seek such things from the King of kings, a King Who truly does “know all things that are on the earth,” and He knows that it is these things that we need the most.