No Need For Spies

564 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from: 2Sa 15:32-37, “ Now it happened when David had come to the top of the mountain, where he worshiped God-there was Hushai the Archite coming to meet him with his robe torn and dust on his head. 33 David said to him, "If you go on with me, then you will become a burden to me. 34 "But if you return to the city, and say to Absalom, 'I will be your servant, O king; as I was your father's servant previously, so I will now also be your servant,' then you may defeat the counsel of Ahithophel for me. 35 "And do you not have Zadok and Abiathar the priests with you there? Therefore it will be that whatever you hear from the king's house, you shall tell to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. 36 "Indeed they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son; and by them you shall send me everything you hear." 37 So Hushai, David's friend, went into the city. And Absalom came into Jerusalem. ( 2 Sam 15:32-37) David has spent some time worshiping before he leaves for the wilderness. Who knows, maybe he was praying for guidance on how to go about defeating Absalom. He looks up and there standing before him is Hushai the Archite with his robe torn and dust on his head. Dare we say, an answer to prayer? Looks like Hushai is the last one out of town and that speaks of some kind of feebleness on his part that might slow David down when he is on the lam. It occurs to David that Hushai could be a very useful tool in defeating the advice of Ahithophel, which would be an answer to his most recent prayer. So he asks him to stay behind and feign loyalty to Absalom and to look for opportunities to thwart the advice of Ahithophel. In addition, he was to act as a spy and send any useful information to David via Ahimaaz, and Jonathon. Remember, this is war! And gathering useful information to use against the enemy is part of the deal. Israel had used spies in the past as they spied out the land of Canaan, and then there were the two spies who scoped out Jericho. Have you not heard that as a Christian, you too are in a war! But you and I don't need to employ spies in this battle. Everything you need to know about your enemy is found in the Scriptures. Know his tactics of doubt and isolation and seek to cling to Christ because the Scriptures also tell us who wins in the end!