April 6

2 Samuel 2-4

David becomes king.

In yesterday's reading, Saul, the first king of Israel died in battle. Even though David was anointed as Saul's successor, he was not recognized as the new ruler by all of Israel. For the first seven years of his reign, he only controlled the tribe of Judah. Saul's son Ish-Bosheth was made king over the rest of Israel. The next seven years were extremely violent and tragic as these two sides fight for control.

I was reading the blog entry for April 6th of last year and Scott presented an important question: "Do you have an issue with another brother or sister that is becoming more personal than principled? What can you do to bring this feud to an end today?" This reminded me of a time I was in a conflict with a good friend. We had a disagreement and then I refused to speak to her for the next four years. At first I was convinced that I was standing firm in my principles. I was standing up for what was right. I had to hold my ground otherwise I would be letting her off the hook far too easily. As time went by (too much time), I realized that I was more concerned with being right than doing what was right. I finally set aside my pride and reached out to her. Thankfully, she forgave my stubborn behavior, and we are still friends to this day. Even though we settled our differences, there is still that period of four years where I wasted my time thinking I was being righteous when I was really being stubborn and prideful.

Romans 12:18 says, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." If there is someone you are in conflict with, no matter what the reason, God wants us to do everything we can to live at peace with them. The story of David's rise to power is a sad story. The nation of Israel suffered many deaths because the people refused to be unified under one God-appointed king. Even though it is very unlikely that any of us would end up going to war against a family member, friend or neighbor, we can still avoid much pain and stress if we do whatever we can to live at peace with one another.