I wondered what it was like to be Joab and to harbor bitterness and the desire for revenge for years. Does bitterness eat away at you inside? Does it make you a hard, heartless person? Do you lay awake at night dreaming of revenge? I don’t know.
What I do know from this chapter is that Joab, given an opportunity to kill Abner unsuspectingly, took it!
Yes, Abner had killed Joab’s brother but that was in battle. And I recall that Abner even tried to have Joab’s brother stop pursuing him. Only after the warning did Abner kill the young man.
But Joab kills Abner in cold blood! How much hatred must have built up in Joab?
As I reflected on Joab, I thought about the gift of forgiveness. Through forgiveness, God allow us to release vengeance, hatred, bitterness and all their rotten cousins to Him!
What a gift forgiveness is… what a gift.
I marveled and thanked God for the gift of forgiveness… God’s forgiveness of us and God’s empowering of us to forgive others as we have been forgiven by Him.
Thank You, Lord!!!! Thank You for forgiveness. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment