1 Chronicles 20:1: “And it happened, in the spring of the year, at the time kings go out to battle, that Joab led out the armed forces and ravaged the country of the people of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. And Joab defeated Rabbah and overthrew it.”

September 8th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

This chapter in 1 Chronicles focuses mainly on how the Lord’s blessing was on David’s military leadership. But it includes the infamous words, “in the spring of the year,” to remind the reader of the detailed record of David’s spiritual life found in 2 Samuel 11. The words are so well known to many readers that the Holy Spirit doesn’t have to tell the rest of the story of David, Bathsheba, and Uriah here. In spite of David’s external victories, his spiritual life was filled with disaster and defeat at this time. David was a man who lived life to the fullest and didn’t seem to do anything half way. He was either worshiping the Lord like no one else around him, fighting on the battlefield with all his might, or falling into the worse kind of public sin a person could imagine.

We all will have big problems whenever we allow our flesh to takeover control of our lives. When we’re not looking through the corrective lens of faith, our vision becomes faulty; we are blinded to spiritual power, truths and discernment. Even if we’ve just had some recent victory over the things of the flesh, but if we then slip away and get our eyes off God, we will fall flat on our faces. Our victories over the flesh last just as long as we continue walking with Jesus Christ and not a moment longer. We must guard ourselves from believing that once we have ‘conquered’ any habitual sin that has gripped us that we can then start walking around in our own strength and survive spiritually. Jesus told the man at the pool of Bethesda, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you” (John 5:14). By taking our eyes off God, we invite the sinful habits of the flesh to return, and they WILL come back full force, as recorded here in David’s life.

“LORD, You tell us that You are able to keep us from falling (Jude 1: 24-25), so remind us today to lean on You and You alone this day, in Jesus’ name.”