The Truce

 DEVOTION

2^ND SAMUEL

THE TRUCE

2 Sam 2:18-32

18 The three sons of Zeruiah were there: Joab, Abishai and Asahel. Now Asahel was as fleet-footed as a wild gazelle. 19 He chased Abner, turning neither to the right nor to the left as he pursued him. 20 Abner looked behind him and asked, "Is that you, Asahel?" "It is," he answered. 21 Then Abner said to him, "Turn aside to the right or to the left; take on one of the young men and strip him of his weapons." But Asahel would not stop chasing him. 22 Again Abner warned Asahel, "Stop chasing me! Why should I strike you down? How could I look your brother Joab in the face?" 23 But Asahel refused to give up the pursuit; so Abner thrust the butt of his spear into Asahel's stomach, and the spear came out through his back. He fell there and died on the spot. And every man stopped when he came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died.

24 But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner, and as the sun was setting, they came to the hill of Ammah, near Giah on the way to the wasteland of Gibeon. 25 Then the men of Benjamin rallied behind Abner. They formed themselves into a group and took their stand on top of a hill. 26 Abner called out to Joab, "Must the sword devour forever? Don't you realize that this will end in bitterness? How long before you order your men to stop pursuing their brothers?" 27 Joab answered, "As surely as God lives, if you had not spoken, the men would have continued the pursuit of their brothers until morning." 28 So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the men came to a halt; they no longer pursued Israel, nor did they fight anymore. 29 All that night Abner and his men marched through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, continued through the whole Bithron and came to Mahanaim. 30 Then Joab returned from pursuing Abner and assembled all his men. Besides Asahel, nineteen of David's men were found missing. 31 But David's men had killed three hundred and sixty Benjamites who were with Abner. 32 They took Asahel and buried him in his father's tomb at Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men marched all night and arrived at Hebron by daybreak.

NIV

Is this story about the death of Asahel or about a truce between the house of Saul and the house of David? We would expect that during war, men are struck down, and this war between the two houses has brought about the death of men. Nineteen of David's men were missing in action, and three hundred and sixty Benjamites are dead, who were with Abner, representing the house of Saul. A truce between them now puts an end to death by the sword, at least for a moment. Once again, we are faced with war being destructive to life, and that brings us to the war that might be waged within us. If we say we have no war waging within, then are we saying we have no humanity at all and have achieved the divine state of perfection? When we consider the spirituality of the apostle Paul and how he confessed to the war that waged within him, we have to come to terms with our own war that we battle. How do we overcome that war? Can we have a truce between our sinful nature and the Divine nature of God? The fact is that God has indeed declared that truce through Jesus, and we are no longer enemies of God and subjects of his wrath, but we are at peace with God. This means we should also be at peace within ourselves, as Jesus gave us His peace. However, what about our nature, it is still not divine, and thus we have thoughts and even behaviors that we know we should not, but simply cannot stop, for as long as we are captive to this flesh, sin will creep in. Then we will not have a truce, but war within, doing what we do not want to do, and not doing what we want to do. We don’t understand that completely, but we know that as long as we are captive to this flesh, as much as we hate it, sin is going to be a part of our lives. At least, God has declared a truce between himself and us, and that means he will not strike us down, but lift us up to life; then that should mean somehow we must declare that truce within us. We are not sure how that works, but if we have the peace of Christ within, then we should not be at war, which can destroy our lives, but have this truce within as we have this truce with God.