Daily Manna 14 August
KEY VERSE: “And there was a very sore battle that day; and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before the servants of David.” – (2 Samuel 2:17)
TEXT: 2 Samuel 2:12-18
12 Now Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. 13 And Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out and met them by the pool of Gibeon. So they sat down, one on one side of the pool and the other on the other side of the pool. 14 Then Abner said to Joab, “Let the young men now arise and compete before us.”
And Joab said, “Let them arise.”
15 So they arose and went over by number, twelve from Benjamin, followers of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and twelve from the servants of David. 16 And each one grasped his opponent by the head and thrust his sword in his opponent’s side; so they fell down together. Therefore that place was called [a]the Field of Sharp Swords, which is in Gibeon. 17 So there was a very fierce battle that day, and Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David.
18 Now the three sons of Zeruiah were there: Joab and Abishai and Asahel. And Asahel was as fleet of foot as a wild gazelle.
Read yesterday’s Daily Manna here
Former Cuban leader, Fidel Castro was a legendary survivor. He was said to have survived more than 600 assassination attempts. Cuba’s iconic dictator provided an almost mythical adversary for what became an obsessive, error-prone assassination campaign by the United States CIA. The agency’s attempts to kill Castro ranged from the calamitous to the comical. Many of them were detailed by the Church Committee, a special Senate subcommittee headed by Democratic senator Frank Church in 1975.
How was it possible for someone to escape such attempts from, perhaps, the most successful secret service of the greatest nation in the world? David survived so many attempts and inventions against his life by Saul, Israel’s first king and his contingent of 3,000 elite troops selected from the entire nation. After the death of Saul, Abner used his influence as Israel’s army commander to prevent him from assuming the divinely ordained position as the next king of Israel. The battle that ensued was very sore and bloody as seen in our text.
Abner’s men were beaten before the servants of David because it is impossible to defeat God’s ordained destiny. If Abner had simply sat down and paused over the many obstacles that came on David’s way to kingship, which were all overcome by the divine mercies and providence of God, he would probably have acted differently. While still a youth, he delivered Israel from Goliath’s threats and reproach. David equally escaped all threats from individuals and nations and died peacefully at a good old age.
There may be a thousand and one attempts on the lives of people who have God on their side, but none of those attempts will succeed. God’s divinely appointed destiny will still come to pass even in the face of the most vehement oppositions.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: With God on your side, you’re safe.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Job 6-10
Thank you for studying today’s Daily Manna – An Fruitless Effort – by Pastor Enoch A.
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Daily Manna 14 August 2021
