Today’s devo is a quick thought, something that hit my heart, but not an exegetical deep-dive. David’s son Absalom — still brooding over the injustice in the wake of his sister’s rape and his excommunication following his action in avenging that wrong — seeks to take the throne of his father by force. David, wanting to avoid a bloody battle, flees to safety in the wilderness.

No sooner has he left the boundary of Jerusalem than Shimei, a relative of Saul spots him. Shimei throws rocks, dirt, and insults at David. He is obnoxious to the point that one of David’s men requests to cut Shimei’s head off. David says no, perhaps this rebuke is from the Lord — and even if it isn’t, let God deal with him. And they continue to move on until eventually the man gave up and went home.

You will come across people like this. David knows that he did everything he could to treat Saul fairly and leave his fate to God, yet he made no attempt to defend himself. Instead David took it on the chin, allowed the man to have his impotent rage and keep moving forward¹.

Don’t spend your time thinking about the people who condemn you for things about which they are ignorant. If you are criticized; 1) hear it, 2) pray about it, and 3) evaluate it. But if it is meritless and nothing can be learned or gleaned… ignore it. Yes, those people will continue to natter away, but eventually the truth will show itself. I am fond of saying, “A person’s character will find them out”.

Trust God to take care of the stone & dirt throwers.

2 Sam 15:1-17:14 | 118/365

1. David would keep a LONG memory, however, as we will see in the coming chapters. ↩︎