Looking at 2 Samuel 20:1-26 we realize that in the Christian life, there are very few “breaks in the battle.” Life doesn’t come with “time outs” or “easy buttons.” We can see this in the life of David:
•He had just put down the civil war led by his son Absalom.
•Then he had to deal with a tug of war between Judah and the 10 tribes of Israel as to who wanted him more.
•That is barely over when there is another squabble and rebellion led by Sheba.
David must have understood that the hardest part of life has got to be human relationships and our inability to get along with each other. The 20th chapter reveals some common pitfalls we make in our relationships with other people and how to avoid them.
One of the greatest danger is that of tooting your own horn and these first two guys make the same mistake but for very different reasons:
•Sheba takes advantage of a situation to “get a head” and will in the end lose his.
•Amasa seems to be a good guy who has been placed in the wrong position, and he won’t realize it until he has “a stabbing pain in his gut.”
Make no mistake, Christian, it is a dangerous thing to either try to be in a position or be placed into a position God has not called you to.