PROCLAMATION
“And Ahimaaz called, and said unto the
king, ‘All is well.’ And he fell down to the earth upon his face before
the king, and said, ‘Bless be The Lord thy God, which hath delivered up the men
that lifted up their hand against my lord the king. And the king said,
‘Is the young man Absalom safe?’ And Ahimaaz answered, ‘… I know not
…’ And the king said unto him, ‘Turn aside, and stand here. And he
turned aside, and stood still.” 2 Samuel 18:28-30 (KJV)
EXPLANATION
These words were written under the influence
of The Holy Spirit of God after the death of the prophet Samuel by Nathan the
prophet and Gad the seer. In the battle with his son Absalom and the army
of Israel, King David instructed each of his three commanders to be gentle with
his son. David’s men routed the Israelite army. They were
not prepared to fight in the forest. As he fled, Absalom’s long hair
got caught in the branches of a large oak tree and his mule kept going leaving
him hanging in the tree. Absalom was proud of his very long hair (2
Samuel 14:25-26) and that vanity played a part in his demise. Joab’s
soldiers found him there and, remembering King David’s words, they would not
harm him. When Joab arrived, after confronting the first soldier to
find him, Joab thrusted three spears into his body and then ten of his
armor-bearers attacked Absalom and killed him. Ahimaaz the son of
Zadok asked to carry the news of the victory to the king but Joab initially
told him no and sent the Cushite runner instead. (2 Samuel 18:19-21) A
little while later Ahimaaz asked again if he could run to the king with the
news even though there was no need for him to do so. (2 Samuel
18:22-23) This time he was allowed to go, and he outran the Cushite
and got to the king first, but he could not give a full report. It
was the Cushite who arrived later that told the king his son was dead.
APPLICATION
Sometimes in our haste, we go off “half-cocked” without all
of the information that we need in order to present the whole
story. The first report of “breaking news” is not always the most
accurate and it is usually lacking in specific details. All too often we
give out misinformation because we do not have, or intentionally do not
present, all of the facts. Sometimes we accept what we have heard as
the truth and share that with others without bothering to verify the
information for ourselves. We are to also read and study The Bible
and verify that which heard is in fact the truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
Without personally reading and studying The Bible we are relying on the words
of others whose message may be missing significant information.
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