ESOCS Devotional 13 September 2025 – Lord Change My Heart
MEMORY VERSE: “And there happened to be there a rebel, whose name was Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjamite. And he blew a trumpet, and said: ‘We have no share in David, nor do we have inheritance in the son of Jesse; every man to his tents, O Israel!” 2 Samuel 20:1 KJV
TEXT: 2 SAMUEL 20:1-8
And there happened to be there a rebel, whose name was Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjamite. And he blew a trumpet, and said:
“We have no share in David,
Nor do we have inheritance in the son of Jesse;
Every man to his tents, O Israel!”
2 So every man of Israel deserted David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah, from the Jordan as far as Jerusalem, remained loyal to their king.
3 Now David came to his house at Jerusalem. And the king took the ten women, his concubines whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in seclusion and supported them, but did not go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.
4 And the king said to Amasa, “Assemble the men of Judah for me within three days, and be present here yourself.” 5 So Amasa went to assemble the men of Judah. But he delayed longer than the set time which David had appointed him. 6 And David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom. Take your lord’s servants and pursue him, lest he find for himself fortified cities, and escape us.” 7 So Joab’s men, with the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the mighty men, went out after him. And they went out of Jerusalem to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri. 8 When they were at the large stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came before them. Now Joab was dressed in battle armor; on it was a belt with a sword fastened in its sheath at his hips; and as he was going forward, it fell out.
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There was much infighting between the 12 tribes of Israel after Absalom’s rebellion was defeated, but they finally agreed to bring King David back. The last chapter closed with the king crossing back over the Jordan River on his way to Jerusalem to be restored as king. However, the people’s sandals were hardly dry from crossing the Jordan before grumbling started again. All of the men of Judah were accompanying David and half of the people of Israel. They were like brothers bickering and arguing with each other in the back seat of a car.
A rebel from the tribe of Benjamin (old King Saul’s tribe), named Sheba, took advantage of the conflict and blew a horn, calling the men of Israel to start a new rebellion against David’s reign. The men of Judah remained faithful to David, while the men of Israel followed Sheba. But his rebellion was quickly defeated and he was killed. Scripture teaches us that we all have a rebel living in us, and if we’re not careful, that rebel will take us down.
The Bible confirms this in Romans 3:10–12: “There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one.”
There is a part of us that doesn’t want to obey, surrender, or submit to anyone, not even God. It is foolish to follow that road since it only leads to death and destruction. On October 22, 1999, a parachutist, Jan Davis, was practicing the dangerous sport of BASE jumping – parachuting off fixed, tall objects like high cliffs or towers. She was making her jump off the 3200-feet, granite cliff of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. She knew jumping had been outlawed because 6 others had died jumping from that same spot. In fact, her own jump was meant as a protest, to prove that it was safe. She jumped that day, but as her husband and other supporters watched, her parachute did not open properly. And Jan Davis fell to her death. Her rebellion cost her life, just as it costs anyone who rebels against God’s gracious gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ.
CHALLENGES
- Have you truly surrendered the entirety of your being to Jesus Christ?
PRAYER POINT - LORD, I surrender again this day and confess that I don’t want to be a rebel, so please
change my heart anew, Amen.
FURTHER READING: 2 Samuel 19: 27-43; Romans 12:9-21; 13:1-14
ESOCS Devotional 13 September 2025
