2 Samuel 18

Absalom is dead. It is an interesting that the very thing that Absalom gloried in ended up being his downfall. It would be like if Dillon Knighton were to be running underneath a tree and get his hair stuck in it. Though his hair is awesome, we would all agree that the hair was his downfall.

Joab and David add another notch to their unique relationship in this chapter:
“"Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom." – David
"I cannot linger with you." And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through Absalom's heart,” –Joab

And so Absalom dies. Of course, the news has to be sent to David and of course Joab is a little hesitant at first. Nevertheless, after giving it a little time Joab sends a Cushite out to give the message to the king. Now a messenger’s job worked in two different ways. Somebody could tell the messenger to run and just report the following events. They could also tell the messenger exactly how they want the events given, like a tape recorder. Joab gives the Cushite very specific instructions on what to say.

I think of our relationship with the Lord. He did not ask us to just go and tell people any good news. He told us to of THE good news, which is given to us in the Bible. We are not to witness to others by telling them a bunch of good stuff about Christianity, but by telling them about Jesus. The only way we can do that is by knowing and reciting the Bible. We carry with us the most important message of all!

The Cushite takes off, all prepped and ready with his message. Here comes this other guy to Joab, named, Ahimaaz. He is super eager to tell news to the king. Therefore he begs Joab to let him run as well and tell the news he has. Joab asks the guy, “Why are you running? I have not even given you any news!” Nevertheless the guy continues to beg Joab and eventually, Joab just tells the guy, “Run.” He meant, “Go away.”

Now Ahimaaz was apparently really fast. He ends up passing the Cushite and getting to king first. Here lies the problem, he has no news. Followers of Jesus (Gang), the Bible tells us that we run a race. We need to run with a message. Ahimaaz had no message, so though he ran hard and ran fast, he ran in vain. If I were to go street witnessing, and I had the faith to go out, the faith to approach someone, the faith to talk about Jesus, but had no message, it would be useless! How do we know the message? We know it by spending more and more time in it. We know by taking the time to let our master tell us the message. We need to sit at Jesus’ feet like Mary (Luke 10). Sure, the Cushite arrived second, however the Cushite had a message! He gave David the bad news, and David was able to weep for his son. Carry a message, spend time with Jesus.