Seize the Moment for Reconciliation!
2 Samuel 14
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, May 19.
Have you experienced a moment of reconciliation with a person you thought you would never see again or whom you assumed would remain estranged to you forever? Did someone help facilitate that moment? David and Absalom experienced a moment of reconciliation in 2 Samuel 14:33,
“So when Joab came to the king and told him, he called for Absalom. Thus he came to the king and prostrated himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom.”
After killing his brother Amnon, David’s firstborn son, Absalom fled to Geshur for three years (2 Samuel 13:37-39). David mourned for his sons, the one who was dead and the one who fled, but even upon his return to Jerusalem, David did not see him for two more years (2 Samuel 14:28). That’s five years of estrangement and the heart ache compounded over time, until Joab, the mighty general of David’s armies, intervened. It may be that Joab understood, in a unique way, the plight of Absalom because Joab had incurred the wrath of David for avenging his own brother’s murder years earlier (2 Samuel 3:26-30). Joab, more than anyone else, knew that reconciliation was possible, and necessary, so he facilitated the process.
Are you a minister of reconciliation? Are you open and available to get right with the people in your own life, and are you willing to facilitate the process of reconciliation for others? Like with David and Absalom, it may not last, as we will see in the next chapters, but that doesn’t mean that the moment wasn’t both important and meaningful. Paul commands us in 2 Corinthians 5:18,
“Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
Seize the moment and look for moments of reconciliation in your own life; be a peacemaker to those you encounter (Matthew 5:9).
God bless you!
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