This remarkable passage demonstrates Joab’s ability to submit to leadership. In 2 Sam 11:14 -21 we see how Joab faithfully performs David’s evil command to have Uriah killed.  Now in this passage we see that Joab is still prepared to follow leadership.  In fact, he is living out the edict “Your job is to make your boss look good.”  He holds off conquering the city so that David can go there and get the glory.

 

This passage also shows us that when we have sinned, confessed, repented, and sought God’s face, God will still come to us, bless us and give us success and glory, just as He gave David.  

 

The path is clear for us also when we sin:

 

1. Clearly identify what you have done wrong.

2. Confess it with a broken heart to God – for example “God I have broken your commands”; or “my motivation was not focused on loving You but pleasing myself.”

3. Repent and ask God to help you never do it again.

4. Rejoice and praise God for His forgiveness through the blood of Jesus on the Cross.

5. Enjoy the freedom in Christ.

6. Where necessary seek other’s forgiveness.

 

Sometimes it is depressing to go through steps 1 through 3 above.  If you need spiritual nourishment at these times, bathe yourself in passages like these:

• John 17:20-26, where Jesus is praying for believers like us before His crucifixion, which ends, "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.  I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

• Romans 8:13-18, which says in part, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.” 

 

A fellow traveler

 

Roger