He gambled with grace

Saturday 5-16-15  (Ingeniero Jacobacci, Argentina)

Scripture reading:  1 Kings 2    1 Chron 29    Ps 95     2 Thess 1

S.  1 Kings 2:38  Shimei replied, "Your sentence is fair; I will do whatever my lord the king commands." So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.  NLT

O.  Here in brief is the story of a man named Shimei.  King David stepped off his throne to flee from Jerusalem as his son, Absalom was approaching with his rebel army, he escaped to the wilderness along with his faithful group of personal guards.   Now on a hillside just out of reach, this guy Shimei, followed King David’s group screaming curses on David and throwing rocks and dirt at him.  David’s body-guards asked David for permission to cross the ravine and cut off Shimei’s head, but David was doing all in his power to keep from bloodshed and allowed him to continue to taunt and curse him.  

Now many years had passed and Solomon had taken the throne.  David gave Solomon some final instructions… and one was to use his godly wisdom to deal with Shimei’s evil attitude.  David was now dead and King Solomon summoned Shimei to court.  Surely he was expecting to be executed immediately, but instead wise Solomon placed him under house arrest, allowing him to build his own home in Jerusalem, but never to leave the city or he would be executed.  Shimei was relieved and gladly agreed to the justice of the sentence.  But after three peaceful years, Shimei, broke his parole terms to go to another city to chase down two of his slaves that had escaped from his home.  Again Shimei was arrested and this time executed according to the agreed sentence.

A.  Why did this man, Shimei, die prematurely?  First, he played the role of an evil fool… following and cursing King David as he did.  But King David gave him grace.  Then, when he was finally called to court, he agreed to his sentence as just and right.  Again he was given grace.  

He was allowed limited freedom and, like many of his day, he had house slaves.  Two of them ran away.  Slaves usually did not flee unless they were badly mistreated.  I would assume that this man, Shimei, was a cruel taskmaster… cursing and whipping his slaves mercilessly.  But now he breaks his parole and leaves town to recapture them.  He thinks no one will notice.  He comes into town proudly with his two recovered slaves, probably bloody from being cruelly whipped and in chains.  But now Shimei is arrested and called to justice again and this time executed.  In short, Shimei gambled with the grace and justice given him and died the death of a fool.

P.  Okay God, here is one of my mentors named Shimei.  You allowed his story to be in Your wonderful book for me to learn from him.  You want me to see how to carefully guard, with holy living, the wonderful grace that You have allowed me.  I am among the guilty.  I deserve the death sentence along with every sinner, but You have showed me mercy instead.  Your divine grace and love has opened the door to eternal safety for me.  Help me to cherish Your gift of everlasting life and in return give You my unfailing love.  Amen.

Ralph