Daily Devotional for Wednesday, January 17

The Replacement

“And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man’s son, whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah Joab’s mother. So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead,” 2 Samuel 17:25, 26.

Name brand versus store brand. OEM versus aftermarket. Often we try to find a replacement product that would come at a cheaper price. Sometimes store brand items at the supermarket are just as good as the name brand. Sometimes aftermarket parts for your vehicle are just as good as the OEM (original equipment manufacturer parts). But sometimes they are not. We often need to experiment a bit and find the best value for our dollar.

Absalom sought replacements in his rebellion against his father. He could not have the originals who were in place, so he sought others. He replaced Joab, who was fiercely loyal to David, with Amasa. He had hoped that Amasa could lead his army to victory against David and his forces, but he was very unsuccessful. Replacing Joab did him no good. David was the rightful king of Israel, and God was going to ensure that he stayed king.

We often try to find replacements in our spiritual lives. We want to find shortcuts to holiness, skipping the God-ordained means of sanctification: prayer, Bible reading, church attendance, biblical worship, giving and witnessing. These spiritual disciplines found in the Scriptures are the God-ordained ways for us to grow spiritually and to walk with Him. When we try other ways of spiritual enlightenment, other ways for getting closer to God, we find quickly that these only take us farther from God. Only through His ways will we walk with Him.

REFLECTION
The biblical spiritual disciplines are God’s paths that He has set for us to seek Him. Follow these paths to meet Him.

Jason Rutherford