Water that has been spilt on the ground and cannot be gathered up again is a beautiful picture of lost opportunities. If you spill a glass of water on the ground, you certainly can’t put it back into the glass. The point is there is a finality about death that cannot be recovered from on this earth. Within strained family relationships, the death of one of the parties ends all opportunities of reconciliation. The wise woman from Tekoa was reminding David of the finality the potential death of Absalom would bring. She was warning him that if the bitterness and lack of communication continued between them and either of them died, then David would never be able to rectify the problem.<\/p>\n
There are 2 lessons to be learned from this exchange. First, we need to be careful in our own families when there is conflict over some issue. We must settle it quickly. As Jesus tells us in Matthew 18, we are to go to that person and make it right. Second, we can all learn from the persistence of this wise woman. We also are to be both persistent and fervent in our petitions to God. James 5:16 tells us \u201cThe effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.\u201d Don’t let the phrase \u201crighteous man\u201d keep you from applying this verse to your life. Here the righteous man refers to anyone whose sins have been confessed and forgiven. When the person who has repented and is forgiven, prays, whether male or female, young or old, they are fully able to secure results with Father God.<\/p>\n
“LORD, we want to keep short accounts between others, and we want to continue to ask You for Your hand on our lives this day.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 Samuel 14 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king\u2019s heart\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>toward Absalom.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead:\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth. 4<\/sup>\u00a0And when the woman of Tekoah spake to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king.\u00a0\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and\u00a0there was\u00a0<\/em>none to part them, but the one smote the other, and slew him.\u00a0 7<\/sup>And, behold, the whole family is risen against thine handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the heir also: and so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband\u00a0neither\u00a0<\/em>name nor remainder upon the earth.\u00a0\u00a08<\/sup>And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0And the woman of Tekoah said unto the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity\u00a0be<\/em>on me, and on my father\u2019s house: and the king and his throne\u00a0be\u00a0<\/em>guiltless.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0And the king said, Whosoever saith\u00a0ought\u00a0<\/em>unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0Then said she, I pray thee, let the king remember the\u00a0LORD\u00a0thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said,\u00a0As\u00a0<\/em>the\u00a0LORD\u00a0liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.\u00a0\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0Then the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak\u00a0one<\/em>word unto my lord the king. And he said, Say on.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And the woman said, Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? for the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0For we must needs die, and\u00a0are<\/em>as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0Now therefore that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king,\u00a0it is\u00a0<\/em>because the people have made me afraid: and thy handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man\u00a0that would\u00a0<\/em>destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an angel of God, so\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>my lord the king to discern good and bad: therefore the\u00a0LORD\u00a0thy God will be with thee.\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0And the king said,\u00a0Is not\u00a0<\/em>the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said,\u00a0As\u00a0<\/em>thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord the king hath spoken: for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid:\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing: and my lord\u00a0is<\/em> wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all\u00a0things\u00a0<\/em>that\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>in the earth. 21<\/sup>\u00a0And the king said unto Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing: go therefore, bring the young man Absalom again.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0And Joab fell to the ground on his face, and bowed himself, and thanked the king: and Joab said, To day thy servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, O king, in that the king hath fulfilled the request of his servant.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0And the king said, Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, and saw not the king\u2019s face. 25<\/sup> But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.\u00a026<\/sup>\u00a0And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year\u2019s end that he polled\u00a0it:\u00a0<\/em>because\u00a0the hair\u00a0<\/em>was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king\u2019s weight.\u00a027<\/sup>\u00a0And unto Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name\u00a0was<\/em>Tamar: she was a woman of a fair countenance. 28<\/sup>\u00a0So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king\u2019s face.\u00a029<\/sup>\u00a0Therefore Absalom sent for Joab, to have sent him to the king; but he would not come to him: and when he sent again the second time, he would not come.\u00a030<\/sup> Therefore he said unto his servants, See, Joab\u2019s field is near mine, and he hath barley there; go and set it on fire. And Absalom\u2019s servants set the field on fire.\u00a0\u00a031<\/sup>\u00a0Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom unto\u00a0his\u00a0<\/em>house, and said unto him, Wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire?\u00a032<\/sup> And Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent unto thee, saying, Come hither, that I may send thee to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur?\u00a0it had been\u00a0<\/em>good for me\u00a0to have been\u00a0<\/em>there still: now therefore let me see the king\u2019s face; and if there be\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>iniquity in me, let him kill me.\u00a033<\/sup>\u00a0So Joab came to the king, and told him: and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king, and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the king kissed Absalom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Water that has been spilt on the ground and cannot be gathered up again is a beautiful picture of lost opportunities. If you spill a glass of water on the ground, you certainly can’t put it back into the glass. The point is there is a finality about death that cannot be recovered from on […]<\/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\/6639"}],"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=6639"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16212,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6639\/revisions\/16212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}