Abner, Saul\u2019s general, killed Asahel, the younger brother of Joab, David’s general. Abner killed him in self-defense as Asahel was relentlessly pursuing him. Abner called back to Asahel, \u201cIf I kill you, how can I face your brother Joab? Stop coming after me.” This proved to be all too true, as Abner would later die at the hand of Joab.<\/p>\n
Asahel’s determination and ambition did not serve him well; he was ambitious for the wrong thing. There is an important lesson here that we should consider all the days of our lives. We must pick our battles carefully. It is good to be determined and fervent about causes, but there are many, many good<\/em> causes in life. We need to go to God and prayerfully consider which cause to give our limited time, talents, and energy to. Everyone runs out of time, and in the final analysis, what we have spent our time on will matter. We need to constantly be reminding ourselves to stay focused, above all, on the gospel going out to the whole world. For believers, when all is said and done, taking the gospel to a dying world is the only cause critical enough to be worth dying for.<\/p>\n “LORD, keep us focused on and working toward the highest calling for our time and energy this day.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 Samuel 2 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass after this, that David enquired of the\u00a0LORD, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said, Unto Hebron.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0So David went up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail Nabal\u2019s wife the Carmelite.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And his men that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>with him did David bring up, every man with his household: and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron.\u00a04<\/sup>And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying,\u00a0That\u00a0<\/em>the men of Jabesh-gilead\u00a0were they\u00a0<\/em>that buried Saul. 5<\/sup>\u00a0And David sent messengers unto the men of Jabesh-gilead, and said unto them, Blessed\u00a0be\u00a0<\/em>ye of the\u00a0LORD, that ye have shewed this kindness unto your lord,\u00a0even\u00a0<\/em>unto Saul, and have buried him.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And now the\u00a0LORD\u00a0shew kindness and truth unto you: and I also will requite you this kindness, because ye have done this thing.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0Therefore now let your hands be strengthened, and be ye valiant: for your master Saul is dead, and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0But Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul\u2019s host, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim;\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0And made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0Ish-bosheth Saul\u2019s son\u00a0was<\/em>forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David.\u00a011<\/sup>And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.\u00a012<\/sup> And Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out, and met together by the pool of Gibeon: and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise, and play before us. And Joab said, Let them arise.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0Then there arose and went over by number twelve of Benjamin, which\u00a0pertained\u00a0<\/em>to Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0And they caught every one his fellow by the head, and\u00a0thrust\u00a0<\/em>his sword in his fellow\u2019s side; so they fell down together: wherefore that place was called Helkath-hazzurim, which\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>in Gibeon.\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0And there was a very sore battle that day; and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before the servants of David. 18<\/sup>\u00a0And there were three sons of Zeruiah there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel: and Asahel\u00a0was as\u00a0<\/em>light of foot as a wild roe.\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0And Asahel pursued after Abner; and in going he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner.\u00a0\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0Then Abner looked behind him, and said,\u00a0Art\u00a0<\/em>thou Asahel? And he answered, I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>.\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0And Abner said to him, Turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his armour. But Asahel would not turn aside from following of him.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn thee aside from following me: wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother?\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0Howbeit he refused to turn aside: wherefore Abner with the hinder end of the spear smote him under the fifth\u00a0rib\u00a0<\/em>, that the spear came out behind him; and he fell down there, and died in the same place: and it came to pass,\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still.\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0Joab also and Abishai pursued after Abner: and the sun went down when they were come to the hill of Ammah, that\u00a0lieth\u00a0<\/em>before Giah by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon. 25<\/sup> And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together after Abner, and became one troop, and stood on the top of an hill.\u00a026<\/sup>\u00a0Then Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren?\u00a027<\/sup>\u00a0And Joab said,\u00a0As\u00a0<\/em>God liveth, unless thou hadst spoken, surely then in the morning the people had gone up every one from following his brother.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a028<\/sup>\u00a0So Joab blew a trumpet, and all the people stood still, and pursued after Israel no more, neither fought they any more.\u00a029<\/sup>\u00a0And Abner and his men walked all that night through the plain, and passed over Jordan, and went through all Bithron, and they came to Mahanaim.\u00a030<\/sup>\u00a0And Joab returned from following Abner: and when he had gathered all the people together, there lacked of David\u2019s servants nineteen men and Asahel. 31<\/sup> But the servants of David had smitten of Benjamin, and of Abner\u2019s men,\u00a0so that\u00a0<\/em>three hundred and threescore men died. 32<\/sup>\u00a0And they took up Asahel, and buried him in the sepulchre of his father, which\u00a0was in\u00a0<\/em>Beth-lehem. And Joab and his men went all night, and they came to Hebron at break of day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Abner, Saul\u2019s general, killed Asahel, the younger brother of Joab, David’s general. Abner killed him in self-defense as Asahel was relentlessly pursuing him. Abner called back to Asahel, \u201cIf I kill you, how can I face your brother Joab? Stop coming after me.” This proved to be all too true, as Abner would later die […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6567"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16190,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6567\/revisions\/16190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}