November 20, 2020 CAC Living Water Devotional : Topic – BEWARE OF JONADAB
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LIVING WATER CAC DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE
Friday, November 20, 2020 – Africa Industrialization Day & Universal Children’s Day
BEWARE OF JONADAB
Read: 2 Samuel 13:1-5
2 Samuel 13:1-5 And it came to pass after this, that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her.
And Amnon was so vexed, that he fell sick for his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and Amnon thought it hard for him to do any thing to her.
But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David’s brother: and Jonadab was a very subtil man.
And he said unto him, Why art thou, being the king’s son, lean from day to day? wilt thou not tell me? And Amnon said unto him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.
And Jonadab said unto him, Lay thee down on thy bed, and make thyself sick: and when thy father cometh to see thee, say unto him, I pray thee, let my sister Tamar come, and give me meat, and dress the meat in my sight, that I may see it, and eat it at her hand.
MEMORISE:
But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab the son of Shimeah, David’s brother. Now Jonadab was a very crafty man (2 Samuel 13:3)
EXPOSITION
Jonadab, son of Shimeah, King David’s brother, was Amnon’s cousin, friend, and trusted advisor (2 Sam. 3:2). Amnon was David’s first son. Jonadab means ‘Yahweh propels,’ but he allowed himself to become devil’s agent in counselling Amnon on how to rape his beautiful sister, Tamar (David’s daughter). He added poison to Amnon’s heart, accelerating it to act against God’s Word (Lev. 18:6,9).
There are people like Jonadab who encourage/assist their friends to do evil, even supplying them the logistics. Dear reader, are you a friend like Jonadab who sees nothing bad in cheering on his friends in doing evil, instead of rebuking or stopping them from such? Unfortunately, David didn’t notice that the crafty Jonadab advised him on the crime. After all, there is no mention of him being with Amnon when David visited the latter (2 Sam. 13:7).
Worse still, friends like Jonadab leave their friends to face the music alone, when the evil they advised them on boomerang. Jonadab ditched Amnon. Absalom wasted Amnon for defiling his sister, Tamar, but Jonadab lived to tell the story. Jonadab even narrated Amnon’s death to David (2 Sam. 13:32). Nobody knew that he gave the ill-advised Amnon. What a pity that Amnon passed through this world without fulfilling God-given destiny. He accepted his friend’s ungodly advice and raced to his early grave.
If the devil wants to destroy a glorious person, he simply connects him with the wrong people. To avoid being victim, tell your issues directly to God and His genuine children (cf. 1 Sam. 1:15-17), discern Jonadabs around you and avoid them (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14), and only receive counsels in line with God’s Word that you must regularly and prayerfully study and follow.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Lord, open my eyes to discern the Jonadabs around me, and render them powerless over my life, in Jesus’ name.
2. I declare: Every Jonadab spirit planning to bring me down, fall down and die, in Jesus’ name.
3. Pray that God should deliver our children in schools and places of apprenticeship from the onslaught of the Jonadabs Satan places around them.
EXTRA READING FOR TODAY: Ezekiel 12 – 13