The Importance of Ruling Your House

568 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from: 2Sa 16:5 Now when King David came to Bahurim, there was a man from the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei the son of Gera, coming from there. He came out, cursing continuously as he came. 6 And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David. And all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. 7 Also Shimei said thus when he cursed: "Come out! Come out! You bloodthirsty man, you rogue! 8 "The LORD has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and the LORD has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son. So now you are caught in your own evil, because you are a bloodthirsty man!" All is not well between the house of Saul and the house of David. Shimei greets the fleeing king David with curses and stones. He is certain that this bloodthirsty king is getting what he had coming. Shimei is still hurting over the slaying of Abner and Ish-bosheth, who were both part of the household of Saul. Abner was slain by Joab in retaliation for his slaying of Joab's brother. This was made worse by the fact that it happened immediately after Abner and David had made peace with each other. Ishbosheth was slain while he lay on his bed by two of David's men. David had the killers of Ish-bosheth put to death for their crime. But Shimei's response here shows that he held David responsible for the actions of his underlings. Absalom's revolt in the eyes of Shimei was further proof that David could not rule those under his authority. (why, he couldn't rule his own son!) The ability to rule those under your authority is an important part of church leadership As spoken of in 1Ti 3:4. Here part of the qualifications for church leadership is to be “one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence 5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?) This entire saga of David, from Abner to Ishbosheth to Tamar, to Amnon are all examples of what NOT to do in leadership. May God raise up merciful and just leaders in His church.