Put A Sock In It

542- Today's Prime Time Devo comes from: 2Sa 13:34-36, “Then Absalom fled. And the young man who was keeping watch lifted his eyes and looked, and there, many people were coming from the road on the hillside behind him. 35 And Jonadab said to the king, "Look, the king's sons are coming; as your servant said, so it is." 36 So it was, as soon as he had finished speaking, that the king's sons indeed came, and they lifted up their voice and wept. Also the king and all his servants wept very bitterly. (2 Sam 13:34-36) Here we have Jonadab (the Eddie Haskel of Scripture) tooting his own horn. “See your highness, I told you your other sons would be okay!” Yes, they are all right physically Jonadab, but how about paying attention to the emotional state of all involved. This is not the time to be bragging about your own cleverness Eddie. Their brother was just killed in front of their eyes and they had to hightail it out of town for their own safety, and this was a sad moment for the family. Have you not heard, to every thing, there is a season! And this was a season of weeping and mourning! As Ec 3:4, says, “A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance;” Some more advice for Jonadab is found in Pr 15:2, “The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, But the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.” The words of Jonadab show us exactly what kind of person he is. He speaks only for his own self-interest and inflated ego. Let us learn from this and seek to use our tongues rightly. Prov 15:23b says, “a word spoken in due season, how good it is!” And in Eph 4:29 we are admonished to: “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Jonadab's words added nothing of value to the situation. He would have been much better off saying nothing at all. Hmmmmmm. Father help me to measure my words and learn to us them as vessels of grace.